Shanghai market retreats from two-week high at midday

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-7-10  |     ONLINE EDITION

SHANGHAI'S key stock index fell from a two-week high in the morning session today as most blue chips were shunned by investors.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.74 percent, or 21.60 points, to 2,898.94 at 11:30am.

Losers in the Shanghai market outnumbered gainers 555 to 244 while 21 remained unchanged.

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks the smaller domestic stock exchange, was down 0.61 percent, or 5.42 points, to 879.59.

Air China Ltd, China's largest international carrier, was among airlines that dived in the early session today.

Air China retreated 3.75 percent to 10 yuan (US$1.46) while China Southern Airlines, the country's biggest carrier by fleet size, lost 3.06 percent to 7.93 yuan.

Air China said it won approval from the nation's securities regulator to issue as many as 400 million A shares on the mainland stock market.

Industrial Bank Co, the Chinese lender part-owned by a unit of HSBC Holdings Plc, declined 1.47 percent to 27.40 yuan. Minsheng Bank, the only listed privately-owned bank, lost 1.26 percent to 6.25 yuan.

Industrial Bank said first-half profit may have jumped by more than 70 percent as interest margins widened and fee income "rose substantially." Net income in the first half of 2007 was 3.6 billion yuan.

China Vanke, the country's largest developer, decreased 2.30 percent to 9.78 yuan. COFCO Property (Group) Co, the property unit of the nation's biggest grain trader, buckled 2.13 percent to 12.38 yuan.

COFCO Property said it won approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to raise as much as 1.2 billion yuan in a bond issue.