China to issue new stock indices

China Securities Index Co. Ltd is to launch four new indices, including Zhongzheng (China Securities) 200, Zhongzheng 500, Zhongzheng 700 and Zhongzheng 800, on Jan. 15 to measure the share performance of more companies, according to sources with the company.

The four indices, along with Hushen 300 and Zhongzheng 100, constitute the securities index system measuring the joint performance of the two stock markets on the mainland.

Experts said the new indices provide more tools for market analyse and investment evaluation and offer more choice for index products innovation.

Among the indices, the Zhongzheng 100, 200, 500 respectively aims at covering large, medium and small-sized companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange with sample number of 100, 200 and 500.

The Hushen 300 Index is now one of the most important figures reflecting the whole fluctuation of China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, which include both large and medium-sized companies.

About one fifth of the total stocks listed on the two markets are chosen as samples of the Hushen 300 Index, accounting for 60 percent of the market value in China's stock market.

The introduction of new indices will better show the detailed performances of the market, insiders said.

Zhongzheng 700 include samples of medium and small-sized companies, while Zhongzheng 800 covers all-sized ones.

All of the four new indices have the same baseline date of Dec. 31, 2004 and the starting point of 1,000, with the same calculation method as the Hushen 300 index.

The four indices closed respectively at 1,747.546, 1,744.817, 1,747.779 and 1,878.743 on Monday, up 106.68 percent, 102.85 percent, 104.92 percent and 109.03 percent from the baseline date.

Statistics show that the market value of the 200 samples of the Zhongzheng 200 index account for 13.21 percent of the total in China's stock market. The samples of Zhongzheng 500, 700 and 800 account for 11.63 percent, 24.84 percent and 88.78 percent of the total market value.

The company is now developing other indices so as to show the performance of certain industry or shares with similar characteristics.

"The Chinese stock market will be worth 30 trillion yuan to 40 trillion yuan in 10 years, becoming one of the most important stock markets in the world," said Pan Xinjun, president of the Orient Securities Co. Ltd.

Source: Xinhua