Chinese stock market rose 0.52 percent to a record high close on Thursday, boosted by strong corporate earnings for the first half of the year. But trading turnover was moderate and the benchmark index came well off highs hit earlier in the day.
As many investors remained wary of pushing prices up sharply because of concern about high valuations and government policy. The Shanghai Composite Index ended at 4,346.458 points, exceeding its previous all-time closing high of 4,334.924, hit on May 29. During the day it rose as high as 4,371.512 points, a fresh intraday record.
Gaining stocks outnumbered losers by 727 to 141. But turnover in Shanghai A shares totalled a moderate 130.8 billion yuan ($17.3 billion), well below daily levels around 200 billion yuan during rallies in May and June. Thursday's close left the index up 11 percent over the past five trading days and up 62 percent since the start of this year.
This year's bull run has sparked concern among Chinese authorities that stocks might be forming an unsustainable and dangerous bubble. But better-than-expected corporate profits announced in recent days have reignited the bull run.
Since the strongest companies often report earnings early in the season, the 82 percent figure is not expected to apply to all 1,400-plus listed companies. But analysts have been raising their growth forecasts for the market's combined earnings this year to above 30 percent from previous estimates of around 25 percent. Many energy and industrial stocks were firm on Thursday, with oil refining giant Sinopec up 0.57 percent at 14.08 yuan.
Haitong Securities, jumped its 10 percent daily limit to 52.11 yuan after saying first-half net profit soared more than nine-fold. But most financial stocks were weak, with Ping An Insurance sliding 1.46 percent to 81.02 yuan. In another sign of concern about high stock valuations in Shanghai, the A shares of China Southern Airlines rose just 0.82 percent to 12.29 yuan after the airline said it expected to return to profit for the first half of 2007. Its Hong Kong-listed H shares performed much more strongly, rising 4.86 percent to HK$6.69, while its New York-listed shares soared 11.48 percent on Wednesday.