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Stocks on bull run despite ratio rise, 04/30By Zhang Ran (China Daily)Updated: 2007-05-08 10:31 China's stock market ended at record highs on April 30 on the last trading day of April, despite a central bank announcement the previous day that it would raise the reserve requirement ratio for banks to help curb lending growth. The Shanghai Composite Index surged 2.16 percent to end at 3841.27 points, the highest-ever close. The Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.6 percent to 1,064.77, also a record closing high. The market is closed the rest of the week for the Labor Day holiday, but may continue to climb after the break, with the Shanghai index likely to test the 4,000 level by mid-May, analysts said. The market reopens May 8. "Sentiment is stable, as the latest reserve requirement ratio reduces the possibility of a near-term interest rate hike," Tao Zhifeng, an analyst at CSC International Holdings, said. On Sunday, the People's Bank of China said it will raise the amount of money banks must hold in reserve for the fourth time this year, reducing the amount available for lending in a new effort to cool an investment boom. The half percentage point increase, which brings the level to 11 percent for most commercial banks, takes effect May 15. The market accepted the ratio raise as a less harsh monetary tightening policy than an interest rate hike. "In fact, any macro-economic level control should be seen as positive because it is healthy to the market in the long term," Zhao Jianxing, an analyst with China Merchants Securities, said. As China' stock market heads toward 4,000 points, global leading financial firm JP Morgan Securities announced that it had raised its year-end MSCI China, and H-share index, two major indexes to monitor Chinese companies' performance in the Hong Kong stock market to 63 and 12,000, up by about 17 percent. "We think fundamentals continue to move in the right direction," Frank Gong, JP Morgan Securities' Head of China Research said last week in its annual conference in Beijing. (For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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