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Shares close lower on economic data worries

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-10 07:55

Shanghai stock market dropped in heavy trade yesterday, led by property and financial shares, on worries that November economic data, to be released in coming days, would be poor.

Fan Gang, an advisor to the central bank, said Chinese exports may have fallen in November from a year earlier and growth in industrial production could have slowed to about 5 percent.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 2.54 percent at 2037.74 points, after rising for four straight days on hopes for more economic stimulus steps from the government. It climbed 3.57 percent on Monday to a two-month closing high.

Turnover in Shanghai A shares remained high at 103.7 billion yuan against Monday's 116.2 billion yuan.

But analysts said the market's technical outlook remained positive, after the index broke last week above its 60-day moving average, now at 1961 points. And with top economic planners meeting this week to discuss ways to revive the economy, hopes for good news from the meeting may continue to support shares.

"The data may well be worse than expected, but the index might not drop too much given support from the government, such as Central Huijin's buying," said Zhou Lin, analyst at Huatai Securities.

Central Huijin, a government fund, has been buying small amounts of top bank shares since September as part of a package of support measures for the market.

Property shares were hit by profit-taking after leading the market's rally for the previous two sessions. Vanke sank 3.54 percent to 7.62 yuan.

Financial shares were weak with Merchants Bank down 4.67 percent to 13.48 yuan after rising 8.27 percent on Monday on hopes that China might cut effective corporate tax rates for banks.

Auto shares also lost steam. Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile sagged 5.52 percent to 4.45 yuan after jumping 9.28 percent on Monday.

Hong Kong shares down

Hong Kong shares dropped 1.9 percent yesterday, with gains in oil and metal stocks offset by a pullback in other blue chips following the previous session's steep rally.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index finished 291.65 points lower at 14753.22 led by a 4.2 percent fall in heavyweight China Mobile.

Turnover dropped yesterday, with shares worth HK$56.9 billion changing hands compared with HK$63.9 billion on Monday.

The China Enterprises Index of top locally listed mainland companies dropped 1.7 percent to 8001.74.

Agencies