Chinese shares closed down 1.6 percent on Monday, led by blue chips and tracking losses in Hong Kong and other markets, but ended well above their intraday low, boosted by officials' comments at the start of a parliamentary session.
The Shanghai Composite Index finished at 2,785.306 points after falling nearly 4 percent to an intraday low of 2,723.065. Turnover in Shanghai A shares was heavy at 105.1 billion yuan ($13.6 billion), up from 9.3 billion yuan on Friday. Losers outnumbered gainers by 504 to 350.
Shanghai's fall was in line with a 4 percent drop in the Hong Kong benchmark index. "The index was pushed sharply lower by weak global markets, such as Hong Kong and Japan, but gained some support from the NPC parliamentary session," said Qian Qimin, senior analyst at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities. This year's meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, kicked off on Monday.
China's hard-currency B shares dropped more than 8 percent in afternoon trade on Monday, hit by a broad market fall and a report by the official Shanghai Securities News that China had no plans to merge B shares with A shares. Shanghai's B-share index was down 6.9 percent at 161.43 points while Shenzhen's B-share index was off 6.4 percent at 461.58 points.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the biggest stock in the Shanghai index, fell 2.3 percent to 4.69 yuan, triggered by a 4.8 percent drop in its Hong Kong-listed shares. Ping An Insurance (Group) sagged 4.4 percent to 44.38 yuan while its Hong Kong-listed shares lost 3.0 percent. Ping An's bigger rival, China Life Insurance, slid 4.5 percent to 32.28 yuan, in line with its Hong Kong-listed shares' loss of 3.9 percent.
The Shanghai index dropped 5.6 percent last week, after an 8.8 percent tumble on Tuesday that rattled global markets. Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, played down any role of China's stock market in triggering last week's rout in global share prices, saying on Monday that the country's market was small and had little foreign participation.
"China's stock market right now is relatively small and not very globalised. So it's not possible for it to have such an impact," Shang told reporters. "Global stock weakness was triggered by a tightening of international liquidity as Japanese and European central banks were raising interest rates," said analyst Yang Weicong at United Securities.
Vanke, China's biggest listed developer, rose 6.3 percent to 15.30 yuan, while Poly Real Estate jumped 6.4 percent to 50.98 yuan. Minsheng Banking slid 4.5 percent to 10.98 yuan. It plans to list in Hong Kong in the second half of the year, seeking to raise at least HK$10 billion, the bank's chairman said on Monday.
In addition, Agricultural conglomerate New Hope Group will raise its stake in Minsheng Banking to at least 10 percent following a new share placement, New Hope head Liu Yonghao said on Sunday.
But Jiangxi Hongdu Aviation Industry, which is investing in Airbus's first Chinese assembly plant, rose its 10 percent daily limit for a second day to 29.67 yuan on hopes that the Congress would adopt plane manufacturing incentives.
Changan Auto Group, China's fourth-largest vehicle manufacturer and its largest mini-van maker, was up 1.9 percent at 15.28 yuan after the official Shanghai Securities News reported on Monday that its parent company expected 2007 revenues to rise 20 percent to 52 billion yuan ($6.7 billion).
Comments
Comments are closed.