By Li Zengxin (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-08-24 16:34

Chinese stocks finished a perfect "growth week" on the fifth consecutive trading day today during a long march to historical heights.

Driven by the particularly strong performance of bank shares, the benchmark Shanghai index not only maintained its 5,000-point level, but went as far as to pass another 100-point mark. The Shanghai Composite Index finished at 5,107.67, up 75.17 points or 1.49 percent.

Total turnover of stocks in the major indices was 250.8 billion yuan, slightly higher than that of yesterday.

Shanghai Composite Index
Source: www.sina.com.cn

The Shanghai index opened higher at 5,070.65 and started to approach higher levels amid short-ranged swings. It hit the highest 5,125.36 soon before the noon break but lost ground in the afternoon to tough a low of 5,052.24. There it regained support to turn around and stay above the 5,100-point mark till the end.

Of the A shares listed in Shanghai, 371 went up, 396 closed down and 75 ended flat. Chalco, with the largest transaction value, rose over 5 percent to help lift the index.

Shenzhen Component Index
Source: www.sina.com.cn

The Shenzhen Component Index, tracking the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange, ended at 17,864.68, 225.45 points or 1.28 percent higher than the previous close. Its traces ranged from 17,671.95 to 17,902.19, both higher than yesterday's closing level. Of the A shares, 297 rose, 260 dropped and 82 changed little.

Bank shares were particularly strong today, with shares of all 12 banks soaring. Industrial Bank led the surge with a perfect 10 percent growth, the maximum price change permitted for a share in a single day.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Bank of China (BOC), ranked on top of the trading volume table, rose less than 1 percent but contributed to the index rise due to their large share bases.

The top two of China's largest commercial lenders both revealed strong growth in profits for the first half of this year. ICBC said yesterday its net profit rose 61.4 percent to 41.4 billion yuan while BOC reported a 51.7 percent growth in after tax income at 29.5 billion yuan. Earnings per share of the two banks both stood at 0.12 yuan.

The two banks also said the US subprime credit crisis had made little impact on their balance sheets. ICBC held US$1.23 billion in mortgage-backed securities as of June 30, accounting for 4.32 percent of its foreign exchange investment portfolio. BOC's investment in mortgage-backed securities was US$8.965 billion on June 30, accounting for 3.51 percent of its total investment in securities.

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