SPRING IN THE West officially begins on March 21, and the month is usually described as coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb.
But according to the traditional Chinese Lunar calendar, spring begins a bit earlier, namely the first day of the Spring Festival which began last week.
So did the first day of trading in A-shares in the Year of the Tiger live up to its namesake?
The Shanghai Composite Index, the benchmark barometer of China’s A-shares, began the inaugural trading day in the new Lunar year with a whimper and not a growl, dropping 14.73 points, or 0.49%, to close today (Monday) at 3003.4 on somewhat anemic turnover of nearly 80 bln shares.
The index ranged between 3026.7 and 3002.8 on the day.
SinaFinance said in a Chinese language story that many traders remained on the sidelines as the country began allowing applications for index futures trading, and the new policy failed to provide a lift as investors opted to take a wait and see attitude for now.
The benchmark index saw most of its losses as the 3:00 pm market close approached, and just managed to finish above the psychologically important 3,000-point level, with financial and property counters leading the retreat.
Last week, as the country was in the midst of the most important of Chinese Golden Week holidays, the stock watchdog authorized the trading contracts and revised rules from the China Financial Futures Exchange.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The China Securities Regulatory Commission told the official Xinhua News Agency under cover of a trading holiday last week that eligible investors would be able to apply to open accounts beginning today.
SinaFinance added that the trial period for the innovative financial products scheme has been completed and that on Feb. 25, there would be an upward revision in the amount of invested capital allowed in the program potentially freeing up some 300 bln yuan in funds.
Tiger Crouching or Sleeping?
Turnover on the first trading day after the weeklong break was just under 80 mln shares, as many investors no doubt were still in holiday mode.
Big losers on the day included China CIFCO Investment (SZ: 000996, down 5.03%), Shanghai New Huangpu Real Estate (SH: 600638, down 2.46%), HI-TECH Development (SZ: 000628, down 3.41%).
Others: Zoje Sewing Machine (SZ: 002021, down 2.12%), Beijing Dalong Weiye Real Estate (SH: 600159, down 3.68%) and China Merchants Securities (SH: 600999, down 2.26%).
Standouts on an otherwise lackluster start to trading in the Year of the Tiger included Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture (SZ: 000998, up 5.08%) and Xinjiang Sayram Modern Agriculture (SH: 600540, up 6.44%) on Ministry of Agriculture assurances late last week that the rice harvest would be protected this year with minimum threshold selling prices.
Recent story: CHINA SHARES: Bashed 10% but Spring Festival offers support
