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Stocks rally 5% after ten day slide

By Ding Qi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-06-18 16:44

A man smiles in front of a stock price board in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, on June 18. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 5.24 percent on the day. [Asianewsphoto]

Mainland stock markets wound up a ten day slump with a five-percent surge on Wednesday. However, with such dampened confidence, it's still too early to bank on a permanent change in the downward momentum.

Following Tuesday's plunge, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dove even lower to another 15-month low of 2,729.71 in the morning session. Nonferrous metal stocks and oil refiners then led the rebound and the index managed to break 2,900 points in the afternoon. It finished up 146 points or 5.24 percent at 2,941.11.

The smaller Shenzhen bourse also experienced long-awaited gains as the Component Index rose 5.02 percent to 9,903.14.

Turnover of the two exchanges totaled 105.43 billion yuan ($15.32 billion), larger than yesterday's volume as more bargain hunters swooped in for the rebound. Gaining stocks far outnumbered losers by 1,396 to 45.

Blue chips performed impressively today on stable earning prospects and recent unusual price cuts. Shipping tycoon China COSCO led the rally with a 10-percent gain today. Petrochina also contributed 5.58 percent rise to 16.09 yuan.

Sany Group, shareholder of the listed machinery giant Sany Heavy Industry, said yesterday it will observe a holding period of another two years on tradable shares in listed unit. The promise may help to ease market fears of excessive share dumping after the lockup period.

Meanwhile, the market may have sensed clues that the financial authority will show some flexibility in its tightening policy as the central bank absorbed only 13 billion yuan of funds via open market operations yesterday. The amount was nine billion yuan less than a week ago.

On the same day, central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said the financial regulators were "interested in drawing lessons from the current US financial turbulence." He made the remark on the sidelines of the ongoing Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue.

In a related development, Belgium's KBC Asset Management NV said late Tuesday that it was granted a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) license by the securities regulator. The move is seen conducive to encourage fund inflows, but the market likely expects more from the regulator to bring it up from a 15-month low.