Chinese share prices ended their weeklong surge on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closing at 5,109.43 points, down 85.26 points or 1.64 percent, from the previous close.
The smaller Shenzhen Component Index reported a 2.1-percent slide to close at 17,443.19 points, representing a loss of 374.74 points.
The correction was prompted by the weak performance of major heavyweights. Sinopec, the listed arm of the country's second largest oil company, fell 4.6 percent to 15.56 yuan.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China closed the day at 6.71 yuan per share, down 2.61 percent. Ping'an of China saw its share price drop 4.18 percent to 99.12 yuan.
Chinese airlines, beneficiaries of a stronger yuan, performed well on Wednesday. Air China surged 6.55 percent to close at 17.4 yuan per share, while Shanghai Airlines was up 6.07 percent to 12.4 yuan and Hainan Airlines rose to 9.78 yuan per share.
China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday for the second consecutive day after more than one month of downward adjustment, with the central parity rate of the yuan at 7.5505 yuan to one U.S. dollar.
China began to issue 600 billion yuan of bonds on Wednesday in the first tranche of a 1.55-trillion-yuan basket of special treasury bonds.
China's top legislature had approved the issuance of 1.55 trillion yuan of special treasury bonds by the Ministry of Finance to buy 200 billion U.S. dollars forex reserve to finance the state forex reserve investment company at the end of June.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said the issuance of the bonds would not directly affect money supply in the market, however, dealers said investors were concerned the issuance could soak up some liquidity from the market and spark a new round of profit-taking.
The weeklong rally of the Chinese stock market has inflated investor confidence in a continued bullish market.
Statistics from the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation show about 210,000 A-share accounts were opened on Tuesday while a near-record 220,000 accounts opened on Monday.
The combined turnover of the two bourses shrank to 252 billion yuan, compared with 263 billion yuan recorded a day earlier.
(One U.S. dollar equals 7.55 yuan)
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article