China's main stock index ended flat on Friday, as investors bought newly listed shares after recent dips, while shares in the property and financial sectors erased some of their previous gains. The benchmark Shanghai composite index closed at 1,623.034 points, unchanged from Thursday's close and about 3 points above its intra-day low.
But many investors stayed on the sidelines after the index in the previous session hit 1,623.017, its highest level so far this month. Turnover in Shanghai A-shares was a tiny 15.2 billion yuan ($1.9 billion), versus an even weaker 13.5 billion on Thursday.
"The index has staged a rebound in the last couple of days, so today shares in banks, property and non-ferrous metals firms lost some of those gains," said Li Wenhui, with Huatai Securities. Software developer Guangdong Ygsoft Inc, which listed in Shenzhen on Wednesday, rose 3.03 percent to 14.98 percent.
Air China, which raised much less money than expected in its domestic new listing a week ago, however dropped 0.72 percent to 2.76 yuan, still trading below its initial public offer price of 2.80 yuan.
All Chinese mainland-listed banks closed lower on Friday. Bank of China, which raised 20 billion yuan in its domestic IPO in June, fell 0.61 percent to 3.27 yuan.
Merchants Bank Co Ltd erased previous gains, falling 1.65 percent to 8.37 yuan. Shares in the bank hit a record high of 8.51 yuan on Thursday as investors expected the share price to rise ahead of the bank's upcoming Hong Kong initial public offer.
Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Co, a Shanghai-based property developer, fell 0.92 percent to 7.51 yuan. The firm said on Friday its first-half earnings tumbled 21 percent amid official tightening steps to restrain investment in the property market. Shanghai-listed China Unicom Corp Ltd, a unit of the smaller of the country's two cellular carriers, climbed 0.86 percent to 2.34 yuan after it posted a 19 percent jump in first-half year net profit.
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