(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-23 10:56

The combined market value of China's stock market expanded by 4.16 percent last week after the share prices jumped sharply on Friday.

The total capitalization of all the firms listed on the nation's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges hit 17.9 trillion yuan (US$2.4 trillion), according to statistics from the two exchanges.

Meanwhile, the value of all the tradable shares on the two bourses climbed to 5.9 trillion yuan (US$779.3 billion), 4.2 percent higher from the previous week.

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The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3.73 percent to 4,058.85 points on Friday, the highest closing after hitting 4,078.6 points on June 27. The Shenzhen Component Index on the country's smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange gained 4.9 percent to 13,417.96 points.

The sharp increase came despite initial concerns of further economic tightening measures after the release of strong economic data on Thursday.

China's economy expanded 11.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, lifting the growth in the first half year to 11.5 percent. The consumer price index accelerated to the 32-month-high of 4.4 percent in June, well above the government's target of 3 percent for 2007.

The two indices fell sharply on Monday before rebounding on Tuesday and Wednesday and slumping slightly on Thursday.

The key Shanghai index increased 3.72 percent last week while the Shenzhen Component Index gained 4.69 percent.

After the stock markets closed on Friday, China announced to raise the benchmark one-year lending and deposit rate by 0.27 percentage point as of Saturday and to slash the tax on interest income from 20 percent to 5 percent as of August 15.

Analysts said the tightening measures would have limited impact on the equity markets.

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