The gap between the A-share price in the mainland and the H-share price in Hong Kong of the same Chinese company has been reduced to the lowest level in history, according to a report of the Shanghai Securities News on Friday.

Those Chinese companies offering listing of both H shares and A shares in the Hong Kong Exchange and the mainland's stock market used to witness much higher prices in A-shares than H-shares.

In June 2002, the same company's A-share price was about 4.5 times of its H-share price, and in June 2003, the gap had been reduced to 3.5 times, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

In June 2004 the A-share price was only 2.3 times of H-share price, and now the average pricing ratio stands at 1.4 times, the lowest in history, the newspaper said.

By July 6, 2005, five companies had witnessed their A-shares become cheaper than their H-shares, and another five companies' A-share prices were very close to their H-share prices, the Shanghai Securities News said, attributing the shrinking gap to the long-time downturn of the mainland's stock markets and the recent booming of H-shares.

If China one day makes its currency Renminbi freely convertible, the price gap between A-shares and H-shares will vanish at last, the newspaper quoted Guo Xinlin, a mainland securities analyst as saying.

Source: Xinhua