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Chinese shares track Wall St lower, lose 1.55%

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-25 19:37

BEIJING - Wall Street's weakness and higher world oil prices ended Chinese equities' uptrend on Friday, with the major index down about 1.5 percent.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.55 percent or 45.19 points, finishing at 2,865.1. The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 9,923.16 points, down 0.83 percent, or 82.83 points.

Combined turnover shrank to 98.33 billion yuan (about US$14.4 billion) from 116.2 billion yuan on Thursday. Losses outnumbered gains by 627-232 in Shanghai and 451-248 in Shenzhen.

PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer, shed 2.14 percent to 15.07 yuan, hurt by the oil price climb. The shares were also affected by an announcement that the company would trim 80,000 jobs within the next three years, or 5 percent of its staff, because of lagging profitability, said Wan Bing, a Guangdong-based Guangfa Securities analyst.

Many of the cuts will be achieved through retirement, reorganization of work and cuts in hiring.

Sinopec, Asia's top refiner, lost 0.44 percent to close at 11.38 yuan.

Airline large-caps, which did well in previous trading days, declined on the oil price uptick and profit-taking ahead of the weekend, dealers said.

China Southern, the country's largest carrier, edged down 3.07 percent to 8.2 yuan, with China Eastern down 3.8 percent to 7.59 yuan and Air China down 2.91 percent to 10.66 yuan.

Datang Power shed 2.13 percent to 9.17 yuan. The domestic electricity giant estimated on Friday that its first-half net profits would plunge more than 70 percent year-on-year because of surging coal prices.

In response to the government's latest efforts to tighten controls on coal prices to help power producers cope with rising fuel costs, China Shenhua, the country's largest coal producer, fell 3.13 percent to 32.19 yuan and China Coal was down 2.9 percent to 13.73 yuan.

Li Feng, a Beijing-based China Galaxy Securities analyst, said it was unlikely there would be much turbulence on the market next week as most companies' first-half profit reports have met or exceeded expectations and regulators would like to see a stable market in the final days ahead of the Olympics.

"The market might rebound a bit next week, but it is unlikely to move upward strongly," he added.