China's benchmark stock market has seen decline in each of the last three days, and likely will again Tuesday when the Shanghai Composite Index opens, after the government released new restrictions on trade. The market finished sharply lower on Monday, in line with other regional market declines, and also amid fresh global credit concerns. Analysts say that the index could test support at around 5,500 points in the coming weeks. The big news Monday was the debut of PetroChina, which tripled its initial public offering price in early trade and finished the day up 163 percent. For the day, the index dropped 143.36 points or 2.48 percent to close at 5,634.45. Turnover was 154.9 billion yuan. Some other stocks also climbed sharply as Units PZH Steel and Chongqing Titanium jumped their 10 percent daily limits, while Sichuan Changcheng Special Steel rose by its 5 percent limit. Jiangsu Zhongtian Technologies soared its 10 percent limit, and CAMC Engineering climbed 2.54 percent. Financials paced the decliners as Citic Securities slid 8.4 percent, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China tumbled 4.28 percent and China Construction Bank fell 3.83 percent. Also, China Vanke tumbled 8.04 percent, China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) slumped 8.88 percent and Fuyao Group Glass Industries down 0.62 percent. Wall Street supplies more bad news as it was able to climb well off of its lows for the session on Monday - but it still closed with modest losses after Citigroup issued a bleak outlook that drove financial stocks sharply to the downside. The news sent banking and brokerage stocks to considerable losses and drove the overseas markets lower this morning. The Dow declined 51.70 points, or 0.38 percent, to close the session at 13,543.40. The Nasdaq saw the largest percentage decline, falling 15.20 points, or 0.54 percent, to end the session at 2,795.18, and the S&P 500 fell 7.48 points, or 0.50 percent, to close at 1,502.17. In business news, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has approved China Railway Engineering Corp's initial public offering plan, said the regulator in a statement. Asia's biggest railway and tunnel contractor said last week that it plans to issue up to 4.68 billion A-shares for a Shanghai listing, to feature 26.75 percent of its enlarged capital. Proceeds will be used for railway construction, equipment purchase and real estate projects. In economic news, Chinese mines produced 240 tons of gold in 2006, about 10 percent of global production, and up from 224 tons on year. Output was just 11 tons behind Australia, the world's third largest gold producer. So far in 2007, gold output is up 13.10 percent from last year as China has produced 191.46 tons of gold, up from about 169.25 tons in the same period last year. This follows a 7 percent growth rate in 2006 from 2005.
November 5, 2007 7:52 PM