Market joins in quake mourning

The stock market, along with the futures markets on the mainland, yesterday joined the nation in the three-minute silence to mourn the earthquake victims.

The two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the commodity exchanges in Zhengzhou and Dalian, and the Shanghai Futures Exchange suspended trading at 2:28 pm, when the earthquake struck a week ago. The China Financial Futures Exchange also paused its mock trading for stock index futures.

Stock trading for the rest of the day was largely lackluster, with the benchmark index easing 0.54 percent, or 19.47 points, to close at 3604.76. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange fell 0.88 percent, or 116.79 points, to close at 13197.59.

The turnover on the two bourses amounted to 104.74 billion yuan, down 24.6 percent from Friday. The total capitalization was down 0.4 percent to 23.63 trillion yuan.

Stocks of companies seen as playing a part in the reconstruction following the quake, such as those in medical, food and cement industries, had a strong showing yesterday, reflecting a recovery of investor confidence in the A-share market, analysts said.

Southwest Pharmaceutical Co Ltd surged to the daily limit to close at 14.81 yuan. Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, which mainly produces antibiotics, jumped 6.45 percent to close at 7.76 yuan.

Shares of Chongqing Road & Bridge Co Ltd soared to the daily limit for the fourth consecutive day after the quake as the company is expected to receive large orders for reconstruction.

Sichuan Road & Bridge Co Ltd, which has surged 10 percent for three consecutive days, announced four of its projects, each worth around 100 million yuan, are expected to suffer a loss because of the earthquake. The company's A shares were suspended from trading yesterday.

Real estate companies dived as home sales in major cities slid in the past week. Real estate projects by some major property developers are also expected to be hit or postponed because of the earthquake.

China's largest real estate developer Vanke slid 4.2 percent to close at 20.75 yuan. "In Chengdu, Vanke has five ongoing projects and two are in the pipeline this year," said Xue Hebin, an analyst at Orient Securities.

But Xue added the quake won't dent Vanke's earnings much because its net profit in Chengdu accounts for only 4 percent of the company's total.

Statistics from China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) showed a large capital inflow into medical, non-ferrous and real estate sectors and outflow from the steel sector in the past week.

(China Daily 05/20/2008 page20)