Datong Coal Industry Co plans to sell shares to its parent in exchange for a coal mine and a coal washing factory valued at 2.5 billion yuan.

The Shanxi province-based company will sell as many as 120 million shares at 22.08 yuan each to Datong Coal Mine Group, according to a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange today.

The state miner is acquiring mining assets from its parent to expand and gain from rising energy demand. Coal prices at Qinghuangdao, the country's biggest port for the fuel, rose 58 percent this year and reached a record US$154 a metric ton on May 30.

Other blue chips also dropped today.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the second-biggest market component, was down 2.40 percent to 4.88 yuan. Beijing North Star Co plunged the daily limit to 5.39 yuan on concern construction curbs to lower pollution in the capital will dent income.

China Eastern, the country's third-largest carrier by fleet size, sank 10 percent to 6.17 yuan. Air China, the biggest carrier by market value, plunged 10 percent to 7.82 yuan while China Southern Airlines, the largest by fleet size, dropped 9.91 percent to 6.09 yuan.

China Eastern "will persist in the direction of introducing strategic investors,'' it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday. The airline had planned to sell a 24 percent stake to Singapore Airlines and Temasek Holdings Pte.

But Wuhan Iron & Steel Co, China's third-biggest steel maker by value, was among the few stocks to increase today. The stock gained 1.30 percent to 7.82 yuan. It said first-half profit rose 36 percent to 4.9 billion yuan as prices gained on rising demand for pipes and automobile sheets.

(Shanghai Daily August 11, 2008)