Stocks ladder up to new ground

Stocks ladder up to new ground
Updated: 2007-05-29


The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index broke the 4,300 barrier today(070529) and closed up 1.47 percent at 4,334.92, again making a new record on just one point below the daily highest level.
After opening higher from 4,288.98, the index had another daily of long-march growth with the largest drawback before the closing by noon to the daily lowest of 4,262.02. Besides the ten-minutes slump, it went through the day on a general upward trend with few deviations. Turnover in the two exchanges was 378.3 billion yuan, slightly down from yesterday's record large of 394.6 billion yuan.



In the Shanghai market, prices of 542 stocks went up, while 227 were down and 72 ended flat. Zhejiang King Refrigeration Industry was the top gainer, rising 10.05 percent to 11.28 yuan. Jinling Hotel and Southwest Pharmaceutical also saw their share prices sealed at the maximum cap. On the other side of the table, Songliao Automobile led the fall by a 5.03 percent drop.

China Unicom had both the largest trading volume and transaction value, with its share price rising 1.41 percent to 6.49 yuan.

Also opening higher, the Shenzhen Component Index ended at 13,456.60, up 3.3 percent. It went through the day within a range between 13,097.84 and 13,458.34, both above the previous closing. Of its A shares, 378 closed up, 135 went down and 96 ended flat.

Stocks in the real estate and construction sectors pioneered the growth. Tianchuang Property surged 10.02 percent to 15.04 yuan, followed by Beijing Urban Construction Investment and Development as the biggest gainers in the category. Companies in the mining industry were also among the best performers today.

B-shares failed to maintain an escalating trend, with the Shanghai Composite B-share Index ending down 3.41 percent and the Shenzhen Component B-share Index dropping 0.27 percent. Of the 109 B-shares, only 15 went up today. Of the few gainers, Jiangsu Xincheng Real Estate was on top of the list with a 10 percent price hike.

The bull run shows no sign of flagging, with the Shanghai Composite Index continuously ascending to higher platforms, the latest on the 4,300 level. Total market value of the securities traded on the two exchanges exceeded 18 trillion yuan by yesterday's closing. At the same, investors' accounts broke through the magic number of 100 million yesterday, including 26.6 million new accounts opened in 2006. By last Friday, total stock accounts in the two exchanges reached 99.8189 million, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing Co Ltd. And because the average daily new account openings has been around 300,000 this month, it is expected that total investor accounts have exceeded the milestone 100 million mark yesterday, although official data is yet to be released.

However, 100 million accounts do not mean there are 100 million investors, or roughly one thirteenth of the Chinese population are investing in the stock market. Such an account in the pool could be in three formats: A-share, B-share and fund accounts. Each investor may have one to six accounts - each type of the three at the two bourses. Presently there is no such data to clarify how many investors hold stock accounts and how many of them are active accounts with daily transactions.
May 28, 2007
Unit: billion yuan

	Shanghai	Shenzhen	Total
Total market value	14,213.5	4,323.4	18,536.9
Total market value of floating shares	4,147.2	2,154.7	6,301.9
Turnover	258.1	133.4	391.5
Average price to earnings ratio	44.89	56.37	N/A