China's shares fell more than 1 percent yesterday as a suspected SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case in South China's Guangdong Province sparked a selling spree in airline and tourism stocks.

The benchmark Shanghai composite index, grouping hard-currency B shares for foreigners and yuan-denominated A shares, finished 1.21 percent lower at 1,496.427 points.

The Shenzhen sub-index also fell 27.35 percent to end at 3478.21 points yesterday.

The Ministry of Health announced on Saturday the country's first suspected SARS patient in months. He is in stable condition under quarantine, with World Health Organization experts on their way to examine him.

The 32-year-old freelance television producer is in a hospital in Guangdong, where the deadly flu-like syndrome first erupted in November of last year.

The news pushed investors to sell stocks in airline and tourism firms, many of which had reported losses for the first half of this year after SARS kept people at home and forced the grounding of aircraft.

China Southern Airlines, the country's largest carrier by fleet size, was one of yesterday's most active counters and closed down 3.87 percent at 4.97 yuan.

Hainan Airlines Co Ltd, a regional carrier partly owned by global financier George Soros, saw its B shares fall 1 percent to US49 cents. The firm posted a SARS-driven loss of 980.64 million yuan (US$118 million) in the first half of 2003.

Beijing-based Capital Tourism Co Ltd's A shares dropped 4.41 percent to 8.88 yuan.

Yesterday's fall broke a technical rally that had seen the Shanghai composite index gain 15 percent since mid-November.

"But as there is only one suspected SARS case, we expect its impact on the market to be limited," said analyst Hu Zhiguang at China Securities.

"We're likely to see the Shanghai index down slightly over the next few days but find support at 1,480 points," he said.

Drug stocks bucked yesterday's market fall on anticipation of a boost to bottom lines if SARS resurges, brokers said.

Sanjiu Biopharmaceutical Co Ltd surged its daily limit of 10 percent to 6.80 yuan, and Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Co Ltd jumped 2.72 percent to 10.57 yuan.

In the futures market, Shanghai copper futures closed up slightly yesterday as a rise in Asian trade of the London Metal Exchange (LME) sparked hopes of further gains on the London market, traders said.

Shanghai's August copper futures were the day's most actively traded and gained 60 yuan to 23,250 yuan (US$2,809) per ton, while other contracts finished 20 yuan to 100 yuan higher.

Combined volume was moderate at 166,036 lots, though that was up from Friday's 150,866 lots.

"Despite the LME-driven rise today, a holiday mood ahead of New Year's Day prevented Shanghai prices from staging more significant gains," said a Chinese trader.

Traders said Shanghai copper futures were likely to see some consolidation ahead of the holiday on Thursday, but there was no potential for a sharp fall if the LME stays firmly above the US$2,250 level.

LME three-month copper was traded at US$2,270 to US$2,276 a ton by 05:05 GMT in Asian trade yesterday, rising sharply from US$2,240.5 traded before the LME closed last Wednesday for Christmas.

Spot copper in Shanghai gained 300-350 yuan to move in a range of between 22,240 yuan and 22,290 yuan (US$2,689 to US$2,695) per ton yesterday, playing a catch up with domestic futures prices after it under performed them last week, traders said.

Almost all Shanghai aluminum futures ended up 50 to 90 yuan yesterday in line with the local copper rise.

(China Daily December 30, 2003)