Dai Qian/Shanghai Daily news
A tight supply of investment funds towards the end of the year dampened the
Shanghai stock market slightly yesterday.
The Shanghai Composite Index, which
groups both yuan-dominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, dipped 0.05
percent to end at 1,098.75. The A-share index slipped 0.05 percent to 1,154.95
while the B-share index closed 0.06 percent lower at 60.90.
As the index may
continue to fall as the year end approaches, analysts said it might be time to
buy stocks and hold them for a few months as the market is expected to
rebound next year.
"It's usual for the index to decline towards the end of
each year," said Zhang Qi, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co. "The market will
get better in the new year as more firms are likely to restructure their stock
holdings."
Going against the gloomy environment in the market, China
Petroleum & Chemical Corporation and its subsidiaries rose as investors
continued to bet that an acquisition by its parent in its units might be
possible.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation inched up 0.73 percent
to 4.14 yuan while Qilu Petrochemical Corporation added 0.42 percent to 7.24
yuan and Shanghai Petrochemical gained 0.28 percent to 3.61 yuan.
Other big
caps had a mixed day - China United Telecommunications Corp rose 0.38 percent to
2.64 yuan while China Southern Airlines Co dropped 1.84 percent to 2.67 yuan.
Baoshan Iron & Steel Co, China's biggest steelmaker, ended flat at 3.92
yuan.
In Shenzhen, share prices of medium- and small-size companies, which
are now grouped under a new G-index making its debut, declined.
Dazu Laser
Technology Co lost 3.73 percent to 11.6 yuan. Vantage Gas Appliance fell 1.93
percent to finish at 5.08 yuan.
In a separate development, Citibank had its
investment quota raised by an additional US$150 million by the State
Administration of Foreign Exchange to a total of US$550 million under the
Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors scheme last week.
SAFE last month
allotted a total of US$1.45 billion of investment quota, marking the fastest
monthly growth since the start of the QFII.
