Each Chinese stock market investor lost more than 1,570 yuan (US$229.5) per day since Nov. 6 to Friday on average because of the one-year-long market slide, according to Saturday's Beijing Youth Daily.

Data revealed that 2.2 trillion yuan had evaporated within the previous 241 trading days since Nov. 6 last year, the second day after PetroChina was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). That translated into an average daily loss of 91.3 billion yuan, said the paper.

PetroChina, the country's leading oil producer and the largest heavyweight equity, has shed more than 78 percent to 10.4 yuan per share on Friday from its debut.

Data from China Securities Depository and Clearing Co., Ltd. showed that the total number individual and institutional investor accounts stood at 115 million currently, without revealing the specific number of each type.

The majority of domestic investors normally had two accounts both at SSE and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, so there were around 57.5 million investors, who suffered an average daily loss of more than 1,570 yuan.

Experts said that although the number of accounts was high, because institutional investors held a large amount of money in a small number of accounts they would have borne the brunt of the losses and that ordinary Chinese investors may well not have lost this much money. However the statistics were a demonstration that all investors have suffered in the past 12 months.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has shed more than 72 percent to 1728.79 points from its pinnacle set on Oct. 16 last year.

Although the Chinese government has taken a series of measures to boost the market, the index continued with its downward trend, losing more than 6 percent during this week, echoing the weak global market performances.

Seven shares had trimmed more than 90 percent from their peaks, most of which were from the non-ferrous metal board. Analysts attributed the nosedive of this sector to the bullish trend of last year and influences caused by the global non-ferrous metals price drop.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2008)