China's stock markets closed Thursday's trading five percent down due to investors securing their profits, pressure from imminent IPO listings and concerns about possible interest rate hikes.

 

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index, which comprises yuan-denominated A shares and foreign-currency B shares, closed at 1,655.8 points, 84.2 points lower, down by 4.84 percent.

 

Total turnover of the Shanghai market was 40.1 billion yuan (US$5.01 billion) with 1,224 share prices down, 63 up and five at the same prices.

 

Market heavyweights Bank of China, Sinopec, China Yangtze Power, Unicom and Baosteel fell by 2.7 percent to 3.49 percent. About 200 shares dropped by 10 percent, the maximum daily decrease.

 

Bank of China, which was listed earlier this month on the Shanghai market, dropped by 0.1 yuan to 3.6 yuan at the closing session, the lowest since its debut on the market.

 

Wan Wenyu, an analyst with Shiji Securities Co, said the imminent listings of Daqin Railway Co. and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest bank, were responsible for the market falls.

 

Market investors are selling shares to raise billions of yuan in cash for the initial public offering (IPO) of the two companies, she said.

 

Investors arranged 500 billion yuan for about 6 billion A shares of the Bank of China, the country's second biggest commercial bank, last month in the offering. The bank raised about20 billion yuan from the offering.

 

Daqin Railway Co. said it plans to raise 15 billion yuan from the Shanghai market, and ICBC, which has yet to publicize its IPO plan, is expected to raise much more from the market, said Wan.

 

Investors are also concerned abut possible interest rate hikes to curb excessive investment growth. A think-tank of the National Development and Reform Commission has called for an interest rate hike, according to Wednesday's edition of the China Securities Journal.

 

The major index of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Component Index, was down by 201.75 points, or 4.64 percent lower, to close at 4,149.06 points, with a total turnover of 25.7 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion).

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2006)