Lock-up shares worth nearly 37b yuan eligible for trade

BEIJING - Lock-up shares worth nearly 36.88 billion yuan ($6.02 billion) will become eligible for trade on China's stock markets in the coming week.

A total of 4.87 billion shares of 26 companies will be tradable on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Under China's market rules, major shareholders of non-tradable stocks are subject to one or two years of lock-up before they are permitted to trade the shares.

Inner Mongolia MengDian Huaneng Thermal Power Corporation will see non-tradable shares worth 14.64 billion yuan become tradable on Jan. 15, the largest amount of such shares to hit the stock market.

Chinese shares closed lower on Friday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ending at 3,285.41 points, down 0.24 percent.