Chinese Share Prices Fall Drastically

Chinese share prices plummeted on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 104.44 points or 2.14 percent to 4,765.44 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller stock market dropped 269.37 points or 1.65 percent to 16,053.1 points.

Analysts said the drop on the neighboring stock markets is a major reason for the fall on Thursday.

Weighted stocks slumped heavily including big banks and petrochemical companies. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest state-owned commercial bank, slumped4.51 percent to 6.77 yuan per share. The Bank of China fell 3.88 percent to 5.59 yuan per share.

Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, fell 3.43 percent to stand at 14.90 yuan per share. China Life, the country's largest life insurer, was down 4.47 percent to close at 48.77 yuan per share. Analysts said the above four blue-chip stocks pulled the stock index down by about 50 points.

The combined turnover on the two bourses was 205.6 billion yuan(27.16 billion US dollars).