Three securities companies in Wenzhou have denied rumors that regulators are investigating leveraged activities of major brokerages in the coastal Chinese city.

A story alleging that the heads of China Galaxy Securities Co. had been detained is false, a head of the brokerage’s Wenzhou branch said, according to E Company, a financial news website owned by the Securities Times. The Wenzhou branch is operating normally, he said.

Beijing-based China Galaxy Securities is at a critical juncture in seeking a listing, he said. He could not rule out the possibility that someone fabricated the news to damage the company’s image.

Rumors of an investigation spread online yesterday, claiming that the heads of China Galaxy Securities’ branch on Jinxiu Road had been detained and that all employees’ computers and phones had been confiscated. The heads of the central bank’s Wenzhou branch and the local finance office said that they were unaware of the rumors, and had not participated in spreading the story.