China New Stock Trading Accounts Fall for Fourth Week
Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) — Investors opened fewer accounts to trade China stocks for a fourth consecutive week, the longest stretch of weekly declines since September, as the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index traded little changed this month. A total of 306,554 accounts were opened in the five days ended Dec. 25, according to data from the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. That’s 9.4 percent fewer than the 338,292 new accounts in the preceding week and a fourth straight weekly decline. Account openings fell for six straight weeks starting August as the Shanghai index slumped 22 percent that month, the biggest monthly loss since October 2008. The Shanghai gauge, up 76 percent this year, has gained 0.5 percent this month, set for the smallest gain since the drop in August. “The lackluster market performance this month has dampened enthusiasm for new investors to move into equities,” said Zhang Gang, a strategist at Central China Securities Holdings Co. in Shanghai. Investors opened 700,617 accounts in the last week of July, the most this year, as the Shanghai index surged. Source: http://bigcapital.wordpress.com/
