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Chinese stock market loses 3t yuan in 4 months

By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-10 16:22

As much as three trillion yuan has vanished in China's capital market since Jan 11, when the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index reached the highest level of this year, the Shanghai Securities News reported today.

The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,306 points on Jan 11, with market value of both the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses totaling 24.84 trillion yuan ($3.64 trillion). It dropped to 2,739.70 points on May 6, and market value of the two bourses dived to 21.84 trillion yuan.

The Index has been plunging since the launch of stock index futures on April 16, which is designed to allow investors to bet on and profit from both gains and declines in the market.

The continuous plunge has made China's stock market the fifth largest loser in the world capital market, according to the paper.

For the breakdown, the extractive, financing and insurance, metal and non-metal, and the property sectors were among the hardest-hit in the market.

The extractive industry stocks dropped the most by shrinking 1.03 trillion yuan, and they were followed by financing and insurance stocks which lost nearly 889.23 billion yuan.

PetroChina and Sinopec, the country's two oil majors, were the two biggest losers, with their market value shrunk by 600 billion yuan in total.

Meanwhile, Wall Street is also in a downward trend over concerns on the Greek debt crisis, and the Dow Jones suffered more than a three percent drop on May 6, which triggered the Securities Exchange Commission to investigate the "unusual trading".