By Ding qi (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-07-24 17:31

Led by outstanding performances of steel and real estate stocks, today's Chinese shares tried to extend yesterday's gains and approached the all-time high. But most efforts were eliminated in the last trading hour by huge profit-taking funds, which pushed the benchmark index back into a deficit close.

Opening 25 points higher than yesterday's close, the Shanghai Composite Index hovered around 4220 points in the morning session, and marched towards the day's highest of 4284.83 around 2 PM, only 50 points below its all-time high. However, before investors could celebrate the feat and expect more, the index staged a surprising diving show and lost all the gains of the day within the last trading hour. The 4200-point stronghold was lost for a while before the index rebounded a bit and closed at 4210.33, 3.03 points lower than yesterday's close.

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

The Shenzhen Component Index remained red with a 14190.97 close, up 51.71, or 0.37 percent from yesterday's close, but still lower than today's open of 14260.09.

Daily transaction value reached 141.7 billion yuan (US$18.74 billion) in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and 76.55 billion yuan in the Shenzhen bourse, slightly lower than Monday. But declining stocks of both markets greatly outnumbered those on Monday.

Real estate shares are among the leading actors of today's markets, echoing the government's estimation unveiled yesterday that property prices in the country's 70 large and medium cities rose by 7.1% year-on-year last month. Vanke, China's largest listed real estate developer, closed at 27.05 yuan per share, rising by 2.62 percent. Major developers like Poly Group and Beijing North Star also achieved notable gain.

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

Insurance stocks continued to lose ground after yesterday's decline. Shares of China Life Insurance Co, the nation's biggest insurer, dropped 1.96 percent to 48.02 yuan. Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, lost 0.94 yuan per share and closed at 82.52 yuan.

Monday's leap of share prices has expanded the market value of the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to US$254 billion. The bank thus overtook the Citigroup and became the world's biggest bank by market capitalization. However, shares of ICBC failed to continue yesterday's performance and closed 1.04 percent lower.

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