Chinese shares slump heavily on Friday

BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shares plummeted on Friday as investor sentiment was hurt by weak overseas markets and concerns about new share offerings.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index trimmed 153.42 points, or 5.29 percent, to close at 2,748.43 points. The Shenzhen Component Index dropped 563.45 points or 5.63 percent to 9,436.21.

Combined turnover on the two bourses shrank to 97.2 billion yuan (around 14.17 billion U.S dollars) from 108.6 billion yuan onthe previous trading day.

Oil caps were deeply hurt by the rising international crude oil price, said Wan Bing, a Guangdong-based GF Securities analyst. PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer and Sinopec, Asia's top oil refiner, plunged 3.47 percent to 15 yuan and 9.12 percent to 10.27 yuan respectively.

Securities shares fell on the news of Everbright Securities' coming initial public offering (IPO).

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the market watchdog, said late Thursday it would review IPO applications from the Everbright Securities and China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp. on June 30.

According to the draft prospectus, the two companies are scheduled to raise about 20 billion yuan, which would further drain liquidity from the sluggish market, dealers said.

CITIC Securities, the country's largest listed brokerage firm, lost 8.33 percent to 24.55 yuan per share and Shanghai-based Haitong Securities was down 6.11 percent to 24.12 yuan.

NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Crude futures surged sharply and broke the 140 U.S. dollars level for the first time on Thursday as OPEC predicted oil prices to rise and Libya threatened to cut production.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 5.09 dollars to settle at a record 139.64 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices continued to rise in the after hour electronic trading and hit 140.39 dollars a barrel, surpassing the previous intraday trading record of 139.89 dollars a barrel on June 16. Full story

NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street plunged Thursday with Dow Jones closing lowest in nearly two years as a series of bad economic news hit the market and oil prices set a new record at 140 U.S. dollars a barrel.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery settled at a record of 139.64 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as OPEC predicted that oil prices may reach 170 dollars this summer. Full story

NEW YORK, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The dollar fell against most major currencies on Thursday, extending losses of the previous session as Wall Street plunged.

The dollar continued losing grounds after the U.S. Federal Reserve failed to give a strong signal that it would raise interest rates later this year in its statement released on Wednesday. Full story

BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- China's stock regulator will review the initial public offering (IPO) application of Everbright Securities Co. on Monday, the first brokerage IPO since that of CITIC Securities Co. in early 2003.

Everbright planned to sell up to 520 million shares, it said in the prospectus on Friday. It didn't set a date for the offering. Full story

HONG KONG, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The 18-month outlook for the banking industry and ratings for the banking systems in China, including the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, remained stable, Moody's Investors Service said in a report Tuesday.