The Shanghai Composite Index opened from 4,006.28 and rocketed to 4,077.74 within minutes but soon turned around to slide. After hitting the lowest 3,858.04 point around 10 am, it made a U-turn and started climbing. Finally, it finished at 4, 007.46, down 45.63 points or 1.13 percent from yesterday's closing.

Total turnover on the main boards of the two exchanges was 195.97 billion yuan, slightly lower than yesterday morning.

In the Shanghai market, prices of 120 stocks went up, while 660 were down and 60 ended flat. Jiangsu Sanfangxiang Industry was again the top gainer, rising 10.03 percent to 13.16 yuan. Zhejiang Xinhu Venture Investment and Shanghai International Airport also saw their share prices sealed at the maximum cap. On the other side of the table, Minfeng Special Paper led the fall by a 10.04 percent drop.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China with the largest trading volume and Sinopec with the largest transaction value both saw their share prices up 0.56 and 2.67 percent respectively.

Also opening lower, the Shenzhen Component Index ended at 12,600.31, down 0.21 percent. It went through the morning session within a range between 12,020.95 and 12,802.14. Of its A shares, 75 closed up, 456 went down and 80 ended flat.

Guangzhou Friendship and ZTE were the top gainers, while CNFC Overseas Fishery lost the biggest at the Shenzhen market. China Vanke had both the largest trading volume and transaction value, rising 0.32 percent to 18.76 yuan.

Stocks in the real estate and food industries pioneered the growth. Shanghai Jinqiao Export Processing Zone Development surged 9.92 percent to 24.48 yuan as the lead real estate developer on the top gainers list.

Affected by the stamp tax increase, the two listed securities firms, Hongyuan and CITIC both fell today, down 8.39 percent to 32 yuan and down 6.56 percent to 53.82 yuan respectively.

B-shares fell again, with only 13 stocks closing up among the total 109. Of the few gainers, Hainan Donghai Tourism Center (Holdings) was on top of the list with a 10 percent price hike.

It seemed inevitable that the stocks will see yet another day of turbulent fluctuations, on the verge of loosing the 4,000 foothold. Yesterday, the market had a 281-point dive, with 860 stocks dropping to the maximum price slipping limit. Both the two benchmark indices, the Shanghai Composite Index and Shenzhen Component Index fell more than 6 percent.

A total of 1,243.2 billion yuan vanished because of a single day's drop yesterday. The total market value of the two stock exchanges was 17,780.3 billion yuan by yesterday's closing, compared with the 19,023.5 billion yuan on Tuesday.

On the other side, the rise in stamp tax to 0.3 percent from 0.1 percent resulted in a big increase in the stamp tax collection yesterday. The 416.68 billion yuan turnover generated 2.44 billion yuan in stamp tax, up 1.63 billion yuan from the previous 810 million yuan in stamp tax to the Ministry of Finance.

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