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Negotiable market value of A-shares back to 10 trillion yuan
By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-10 18:13

The combined negotiable market value, or market cap in circulation, of A-shares listed in the Shanghai and the Shenzhen bourses rose 122 percent from the beginning of the year to reach 10.44 trillion yuan ($1.53 trillion) as of Thursday, with 7.71 trillion yuan for Shanghai and 2.73 trillion yuan for Shenzhen, according to Shanghai Securities News.

The total market value of the two stock exchanges rebounded to 21.21 trillion yuan on Thursday, up 70 percent from 12.5 trillion yuan at the beginning of the year.

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The last time that negotiable market value of the two bourses had topped the 10-trillion-yuan mark was Jan 11, 2008, when the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rebounded to 5,700 points after a slump from the its historic high of 6,124 points. The index fell to a record low of 1,664 points ten months later, and the combined negotiable market value of the two stock exchanges dropped to 3.6 trillion yuan as a result.

The combined negotiable market value reached 10 trillion yuan after the Shanghai Composite Index rallied to around 3,100 points, a gap of 45 percent, however, compared with the highest point reached in 2008, showing that the negotiable shares capacity has been greatly increased, Shanghai Securities News reported.

The increase was mainly due to the lift of sales restrictions on the previously non-tradable shares, the newspaper said.

The ban on non-tradable shares worth 1.08 trillion yuan was lifted in the first half of this year, adding 109.1 billion tradable shares to the market.

And when the Bank of China's 171.33 billion non-tradable IPO shares held by Central Huijin Investment Ltd was unlocked on July 6, both the number and market value of negotiable shares surpassed those of non-tradable shares on the A-share market.

About 600 billion shares with a market value exceeding 4 trillion yuan will become tradable in the second half of this year, exceeding those unlocked in the first half of this year.

Negotiable shares will account for 74.04 percent on the A-share market by the end of 2009, the paper said.

As more non-negotiable shares get the right for trading, institutional investors will dominate the stock market, the newspaper said.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed at 3,113.93 points on Friday, down 9.10 points, or 0.29 percent. The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 12,706.01 points, up 68.07 points, or 0.54 percent.


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