IN BRIEF (Page 1)

Stocks fall on tightening measures

The Chinese stock market fell on Friday after the government announced the rise of banks' reserve ratio by 0.5 percentage points and the issuance of 150 billion yuan ($20 billion) treasury bonds. The Shanghai Composite Index slid 2.16 percent to close at 5277.18, and the Shenzhen Composite Index dropped 1.9 percent to close at 1457.8.

Analysts said the government tightening measures, which are expected to suck up around 200 billion yuan ($26 billion) from the capital market, would trigger short-term stock market volatility but are not expected to have a negative impact in the long term.