China's first jewelry stock ST Diamond was removed from China's stock market Friday for failing to provide a company report for the second half of 2004.

Insiders say this is the first case in China that a company wasforced off the market for this reason.

A private jewelry company in northwest China's Shaanxi Province,the Diamond Jewelry Company was listed on Dec. 30, 1996 on Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The stock was once popular. Its highest price was more than 50 yuan (about six US dollars) per share.

But in 2004, the company was investigated by the local securities administration for its untrue statement in the company reports. After the company announced a loss of 1.5 billion yuan (about 181 million US dollars), the share price fell below one yuan(about 12 cents) at the end of last year.

Source: Xinhua