Business     

Shares may weaken on liquidity worries

Shanghai Daily, February 13, 2012

• Shanghai's stock market may weaken this week on concerns about tight liquidity due to China's monetary policies and on the unlocking of large amount of previously untradable shares which will lead to huge demand for funds, analysts said.

  The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1 percent last week to post a fourth consecutive weekly gain.

  "Sentiment has improved in recent weeks but neither the economic data nor market liquidity condition support a continued market growth," said Qian Qimin, an analyst at Shenyin & Wanguo Securities Co.

  The National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday that January's consumer price index rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier, beating market expectations of around 4 percent.

  The People's Bank of China said after the market closed on Friday that new yuan loans last month totaled 738.1 billion yuan (US$117.5 billion), below market expectations of 1 trillion yuan.

  Qian said that liquidity will be "still tight under huge demand" for the unlocked shares.

  An extra 16.09 billion yuan worth of shares in 22 companies will trade this week on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses after the expiry of lockup periods, Xinhua said, or nearly triple last week's amount.

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