Regulator's pep talk fails to halt Shanghai stock sell-down
Mainland investors ignored a pep talk from a senior securities official yesterday and dumped shares for a third day as concerns about an imminent interest-rate rise and the deteriorating world economy increased.
The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 8.584 points or 0.22 per cent to 3,962.673. For the week, the benchmark lost 337.842 points or 7.86 per cent, the biggest weekly drop since the week to February 1.
Yesterday's dip doused bullish comments by Fan Fuchun, a vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, that investors should have faith in the market as the economy's fundamentals remained strong.
Mr Fan's remarks, published on the front page of the Shanghai Securities News, was the watchdog's latest effort to talk up the sliding market.
'He is trying to restore confidence,' said GF Securities analyst Zhang Wancheng. 'It is sending a positive message to the market, but they are not doing anything.'
The Shanghai index has tumbled 24.69 per cent this year and is 34.95 per cent off its historic high of 6,092.057 points reached on October 16 last year.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped 1.17 per cent in the past week, raising its losses for the year so far to 20.05 per cent.
