Investors start to shun stock market amid volatility

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BIZCHINA / Center

Investors start to shun stock market amid volatility

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-17 15:49

The volatility of stock market has led to a sharp decline in the number
of newly opened trading accounts in China, the China Securities
Depository and Clearing Co Ltd announced on Monday.

Investors opened 66,100 A-share accounts on Friday, the second
consecutive day when the number of new accounts opened daily was below
70,000, according to the company.

It said the A-share accounts opened each day dropped to 99,957 on July 2,
the first time lower than 100,000 since May 12, and remained under
100,000 for ten consecutive days. The number was over 300,000 at its peak
time.??

The share prices went up and down last week, with the Shanghai Composite
Index closing at 3914.4 points on Friday, up 3.5 percent over the
previous week.

Analysts said the recent stock volatility has dampened investors'
enthusiasm and prompted them to halt their frenzy rush to the stock
markets for higher earnings.

Investors' heavy fund inflow had pushed the Shanghai Composite index to a
record high of 4,335.18 points on May 29, an increase of 62 percent since
the beginning of the year.

Investors started to lose confidence in the stock market since it
experienced ups and downs from May 30 when China tripled the stamp tax
for stock transactions amid a spate of government measures to cool the
equity market.

The total accounts on both Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges,
including A-share, B-share and mutual fund accounts, reached 108 million
as of Friday, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing Co
Ltd.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

20071123 Extracted from http://www.hellomandarin.net