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Stock index breaks record in morning session

By Li Zengxin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-05-22 13:39

After hitting record yesterday, Chinese stocks continued a bull run this morning, leaving last weekend's tightening measures completely behind.

The Shanghai Composite Index, opened higher from 4,091.14, and finished at 4,114.28 by noon, up 42.06 points or 1.03 percent as a new record high. The benchmark index ran through the morning session on a strong upward trend, with 4,090.05 as the bottom point, still 18 points higher than yesterday's closing.

The Shenzhen Component Index tracking the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange had a similar mapping. It opened also higher, and ended 1.27 percent up at 12, 424.89, another record. Of the A shares, 430 closed up, 86 went down and 93 ended flat.

At the Shanghai Stock Exchange, as many as 630 stocks went up, but 134 down and 76 flat. Shanghai Bingxiong Fresh-Preservation Equipments was the top gainer, with its share price rising 16.03 percent to 12.74 yuan. Shanghai Ace and Nantong Jiangshan Agrochemical and Chemicals also saw their share prices sealed at the maximum cap while Dashang Group dropped 4.16 percent as the biggest loser. China Unicom with the largest trading volume and transaction value dropped 0.47 percent to 6.39 yuan in the morning.

In the Shenzhen market, Beihai Port and Hunan Jinguo Industrial were top gainers, while Hubei Guangji Pharmaceutical led the fall again. China Vanke ranked on top in terms of both trading volume and transaction value.

Coal mining sector ranked on top of the rising wave. The mining index went up 3.92 percent. Datong Coal rose 6.62 percent to 24.63 yuan. Kailuan Clean Coal was up 3.85 percent. Companies in the transportation industry were also the best performers this morning.

Along with the two indices both hitting record high yesterday, the average share price doubled. By Monday's closing, the weighted average price of all floating A shares was 15.36 yuan, up 107 percent compared with that by the end of 2006. On the two exchanges, shares with prices lower than 8 yuan accounted for less than 4 percent of the total number of listed companies.

Central bank's comprehensive measures issued last Friday -- hike in interest rate, bank reserve ratio and enlargement in renminbi trading band, were digested completely by a 15-minute deep drop after a 100-point lower opening in the morning session yesterday. Individual investors experienced a "breath-taking" 15 minutes but then a long hilarious day.

However, institutional investors and investment funds became more and more cautious. From mid March to date, there were 30 funds suspending subscription for newly listed shares completely or in large amount offerings, accounting for one eighth of the total number of open-ended funds.

Last week's fluctuation in the market has made some investors rethink and cool their minds down. According to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Co Ltd, the numbers of new accounts opened from Monday to Friday were 108,179, 47,037, 42,328, 27,836 and 23,009 accounts, in an apparent descending trend. The total number, 248,389 accounts, was down 84.2 percent from 1,574,849 for the previous week.