Mainland, HK markets continue corrections

Investors check share prices at a brokerage in Haikou, Hainan province, April 29, 2015. [Asianewsphoto by Shi Yan]

Stock markets in the mainland and Hong Kong continued their corrections on Wednesday, as investors adjusted their portfolios. But analysts said the bull market is far from reaching an end.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.01 percent to 4476.62, with turnover shrinking to 752.4 billion yuan ($121.4 billion) from above 1 trillion yuan on Tuesday. The SCI had tumbled to below 4400 during the morning as banks posted weak first-quarter earnings. A strong performance by the non-ferrous metal stocks wiped out the losses in the afternoon, boosted by new tax reforms within the industry.

ChiNext, China's Nasdaq-style board, soared 4 percent in Shenzhen with investors buying small chips after the market saw some corrections on Monday and Tuesday.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index dropped 0.18 percent to 28389.58. Turnover shrank to HK$159 billion from HK$170.6 billion on Tuesday.

"We haven't seen any signal that the market is peaking out. However, some individual shares have been overbought and are under price corrections now. Considering the three-day May Day holiday is approaching and more than 20 companies are about to issue new shares after the break, the market may be going through corrections inthe short term," GF Securities said in a note this morning.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission sent an alert on Tuesday, the second of its kind over the past week. It said, "the investing public should be aware of risk management and don't use borrowed money or sell your properties to buy stocks".

But statistics provided by the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp on Tuesday show China currently has more than 200 million stock accounts. The number of new brokerage accounts soared 430 per cent to 7.59 million year-on-year in the first three months of this year.

Analysts said stock prices may become "polarized" in the coming days. Shares which had seen aggressive growth but have no earning potential will see big corrections, while those with strong earning ability are about to see stronger growth.