Stocks News
- Chinese shares continue recovery with gainers as majority
Date: 18-May-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
Chinese shares Thursday regained ground lost two days earlier, stepping back over the 4,000-point barrier, with B-shares leading the way.
Real estate, environmental protection and telecoms stocks made the biggest gains, and the financial and steel sectors, morose over the past few days, rebounded vigorously.
The most eye-catching performances came from foreign currency-denominated B-shares, which posted an 8.04 percent rise on the Shanghai bourse and went up 3.02 percent on the Shenzhen bourse Thursday.
Market observers said since the beginning of May, 37 out of 100 negotiable B-shares have each chalked up cumulative growth of more than 50 percent, with the B-share index soaring 43 percent.
Transactions have been robust over the past two months. On the Shanghai Stock Exchange, turnover stood at 2.3 billion U.S. dollars for B-shares in April, and has increased by 89 percent to 4.3 billion U.S. dollars since the beginning of May.
On the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, transaction volume was 17 billion HK dollars for B-shares last month, and went up to 24.2 billion HK dollars so far this month, 1.42 times the April figure.
Lured by the prospect of quick gains because of the price gaps between A- and B-shares, B-share markets recorded big inflow of new investors.
In the weeks prior to May, the B-share markets saw around a thousand new trading accounts opened each day. But the number surged to 16,600 on May 8, then to 27,800 on May 9, 35,100 on May 10 and 38,800 on May 11.
Analysts pointed to several items of good news -- fast economic growth in the first four months and a slowdown in inflation -- as factors behind the recovery on both the A- and B-share markets.
Market observers from Shanghai said while some retail investor spawned their homes to get money to enter the red-hot stock markets, others took the opposite tack and began to invest their gains in real estate.
On Thursday, all three major equity indices for China's two bourses closed higher, with gainers an overwhelming majority.
Combined turnover increased slightly from the previous trading day to 288 billion yuan (37 billion U.S. dollars).
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index concluded Thursday trading at 4,048.29 points, up 62.25 points, or 1.56 percent, from the previous close on a daily transaction volume of 189.6 billion yuan (24.6 billion U.S. dollars).
The key stock index, which covers both yuan-denominated A-shares and foreign-currency-denominated B-shares, moved between 3,983 points and 4,064.28 points.
The Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange rose 328.73 points, or 2.81 percent, to end the trading day at a record 12,011.08 points on turnover of 98.5 billion yuan (12.8 billion U.S. dollars).
The Shanghai stock exchange recorded 761 gainers and 64 losers with 68 stocks unchanged, while the Shenzhen bourse saw 536 gainers and 33 losers with 96 stocks unchanged.
Blue chips moved up.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 0.36 percent to 5.56 yuan, the Bank of China went up 0.17 percent to 5.91 yuan, and Sinopec and China Life both rose 0.39 percent to end at 12.8 yuan and 39.09 yuan.
On Thursday, the Hushen 300 Index, which tracks 300 companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, closed at 3,778.61 points, up 78.32 points, or 2.12 percent, from the previous close.
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