China's bullish stock markets are driving hundreds of thousands of people to open trading accounts with the number of new accounts being opened each day almost 35 times higher than a year ago.

Each day an average of 90,000 new trading accounts are being opened by individuals on China's two Renminbi stock exchanges, according to statistics from the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. Ltd.

Last January the daily average was 2,708 new accounts with a total of 62,300 A-share accounts during the month.

The total number of personal accounts on the two bourses reached 80.53 million on Tuesday.

A stock trader is only allowed to open one personal account on each of the two bourses.

Following a four-year recession, China's mainland stock markets began to rebound at the beginning of 2006, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A- and B- shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, continuously hit new highs.

The index broke the 2,900-point mark on Jan. 22. On January 23 last year the index stood at 1,255.77.

Turnover on the Shanghai Stock Exchange hit a record 104.9 billion yuan (13.45 billion U.S. dollars), on Wednesday bringing the combined turnover on the two bourses to 158.24 billion yuan.

The market value of the Chinese stock markets reached a record high of 10.25 trillion yuan on Jan. 9, equivalent to 50 percent of China's gross domestic product.

Source: Xinhua