Shanghai index dives nearly 4.5% at midday

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-6-27  |     ONLINE EDITION

SHANGHAI'S key stock index plunged nearly 4.5 percent in the morning session today.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 4.47 percent, or 129.70 points, to 2,772.15 at 11:30am. The index is comprised of yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares.

Losers in the Shanghai market outnumbered gainers 746 to 31 while one was unchanged.

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks the smaller domestic stock exchange, was down 4.96 percent, or 41.98 points, to 804.85.

Blue chips across the board suffered sell-offs this morning. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co dropped on concern lending growth will slow. China Vanke Co led property developers lower on concern access to financing for real estate will be restricted. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp and Air China Ltd fell after crude oil traded near a record high.

Pudong Bank slid 5.99 percent to 23.06 yuan (US$3.35) while Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the biggest lender in the country, slumped 3.48 percent to 4.99 yuan.

China Vanke, the biggest developer, lost 6.67 percent to 9.10 yuan. Poly Real Estate, the second biggest, shed 9.91 to 13.34 yuan.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec, the biggest oil refiner, was down 6.90 percent to 10.52 yuan while PetroChina, the largest oil producer and the biggest market heavyweight, also fell 3.09 percent to 15.06 yuan.

Sinopec plans to buy oil field service maintenance assets from its parent for 1.56 billion yuan to boost earnings, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late yesterday.

Air China, the largest carrier in the country by market value, sank 6.21 percent to 8.31 yuan while China Southern Airlines, the biggest by fleet size, dived 6.93 percent to 6.98 yuan. Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines shed 7.31 percent to 6.59 yuan.

Air China said it agreed to buy 20 Airbus A330 wide-body planes with a list price of US$3.82 billion to increase flight frequency from its Beijing base.