Chinese shares concluded Friday trading in a mixed manner -- A-shares lost in Shanghai but gained in Shenzhen, and vice versa for B-shares -- amid fears of new government measures to cool down the wild stock market and the galloping economy.

China's central banker Zhou Xiaochuan said on Thursday that the Government will continue to use monetary instruments, including reserve requirements for commercial banks, and interest rates, to maintain macro-economic stability.

Since the beginning of the year, China has raised the bank reserve requirement four times and hiked the interest rate once.

Zhou told a press conference after the closing of the 2007 annual board meetings of the African Development Bank in Shanghai that China's macro-economic stability is very important both for the nation and in terms of its impact on the world economy.

Analysts see Zhou's remarks as an implicit warning from the government about a speculative bubble on the equity markets.

The stock buying frenzy helped crank up the combined market value of the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses to 17.43 trillion yuan (2.263 trillion U.S. dollars) on Thursday, surpassing China's total savings deposits of 17.37 trillion yuan (2.256 trillion U.S. dollars). Stocks and shares have become an important component of Chinese citizens' wealth, analysts pointed out.

In April alone, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose more than 20 percent, and individual investors opened nearly 4.8 million stock trading accounts, higher than the total number of newly opened accounts for the first quarter.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended Friday trading at 4,030.26 points, down 18.04 points, or 0.45 percent, from the previous close on a daily transaction volume of 175 billion yuan (22.7 billion U.S. dollars).

The key stock index, which covers both yuan-denominated A-shares and foreign-currency-denominated B-shares, peaked at 4,052.10 points and bottomed at 3,999.17 points.

The Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange rose 89.02 points, or 0.74 percent, to conclude the trading day at a record 12,100.10 points on turnover of 90 billion yuan (11.7 billion U.S. dollars).

The Shanghai stock exchange recorded 383 gainers and 391 losers with 120 stocks unchanged, while the Shenzhen bourse saw 256 gainers and 263 losers with 146 stocks unchanged.

Despite the partial daily correction amid government warning, analysts are still optimistic about market sentiment in the coming week, because there were more gainers and unchanged than losers on the Shanghai stock exchange with the index driven down mainly by the four heavyweights. Some analysts claim that the four, which are decisive, substantial counters for the Shanghai Composite Index, are highly unlikely to drop further.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 1.26 percent to 5.49 yuan, the Bank of China went down 1.69 percent to 5.81 yuan, and Sinopec, down 1.72 percent to 12.58 yuan and China Life, down 0.18 percent to 39.02 yuan.

On Friday, the Hushen 300 Index, which tracks 300 companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, closed at 3,776.63 points, down 1.98 points, or 0.05 percent, from the previous close.

Source: Xinhua