 Mainland shares firm but blue chips sink index
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-23 07:37  Most mainland shares rose yesterday, extending two days of sharp gains, but profit-taking in heavily weighted blue chips such as China Life Insurance and Sinopec pulled down the main index. The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 0.53 percent at 2846.117 points after moving very narrowly. It surged 6.58 percent in the previous two days. Turnover in Shanghai A shares remained moderate at 65 billion yuan against Monday's 69.5 billion yuan. A technical breakout on Monday provided further evidence that the market may have found a longer-term floor at this month's 17-month low of 2566 points. The index triggered a bullish symmetrical triangle formed by this month's highs and lows, and pointing above 3000 points. But the index edged down yesterday as blue chips gave up part of their recent gains. China Life slipped 2.15 percent to 26.33 yuan, and Sinopec lost 2.13 percent to 11.01 yuan. "The technical signals are good but there is still resistance in the 2,990-3,000 area, and turnover is not very active so some investors still worry that the rally may be short-lived, as has happened several times recently," said Chen Jinren, analyst at Huatai Securities. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said late on Monday that it was stepping up monitoring of sales of shares made tradable by the expiry of lock-up periods, in order to enforce rules designed to minimise the impact of such sales on prices. HK shares hold steady Hong Kong shares flitted in and out of negative territory before closing flat yesterday, as investors locked in gains on a four-session, 6.4 percent rally after oil prices rose, but shares in Lenovo slid after IBM sold a stake in the Chinese PC maker. Turnover on the exchange was the third lowest this year, with investors expecting Wall Street to fall overnight after a raft of US companies, including American Express, Apple and Texas Instruments announced dismal earnings growth after the closing bell on Monday. Shares in Lenovo slid more than 5 percent after US computer giant IBM sold a 1.3 percent stake in the company for around $77.3 million and JP Morgan downgraded the stock on slowing Chinese demand. But shares in Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co jumped 11 percent on a news report that Datang Telecom group may buy a 20 percent stake in SMIC, the nation's biggest contract chip maker. Agencies  (China Daily 07/23/2008 page15) |
