Banking News
- Chinese shares slump 4.8%
Date: 25-Oct-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
Chinese stocks tumbled 4.8 percent on Thursday as the latest macroeconomic figures sparked market concerns over tightening policies to curb the economy from overheating.
The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, closed at 5,562.39 points, down 280.72 points from the previous close.
The Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller market ended at 18,175.31 points, down 3.13 percent.
More than 1,280 stocks out of the total 1,497 suffered losses and only 70 gained.
Combined turnover of two markets rose to 183.7 billion yuan (24.5 billion U.S. dollars), compared with 166.2 billion yuan on Wednesday.
According to official data released on Thursday, China's consumer price index (CPI), a key inflation indicator, rose by 4.1percent in the first nine months over the same period last year. The CPI eased slightly to 6.2 percent in September after surging to an 11-year monthly high of 6.5 percent in August.
'The CPI figures prompted concern over further interest rate hikes, which in turn led to the slump,' said Qiu Yanying, an analyst with Shanghai Tianxiang Investment Consulting.
'PetroChina's return to A-share market also weighed on the market,' said Qiu.
The country's largest oil producer announced on Wednesday that it had set the price range of its A-share Initial Public Offering (IPO) at 15 to 16.7 yuan per share.
If its IPO price is fixed at 16.7 yuan per share, the oil giant would be able to raise a record-breaking 66.8 billion yuan from its imminent Shanghai listing, surpassing the 66.58 billion yuan achieved by China Shenhua Energy Company, the country's largest coal producer, earlier this month.
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