China's two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen shrank by 5 percent in terms of capitalization last week to17.21 trillion yuan (US$2.25 trillion) on Friday, down by 918.8 billion yuan (US$120.16 billion) since May 25.

The shrinkage was considered to be the result of the Ministry of Finance announcement late on Tuesday that the stamp tax on securities trading was to rise from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent from May 30.

Shanghai Stock Exchange reported 13.34 trillion yuan (US$1.75 trillion) in total capitalization, a drop of 4 percent, while Shenzhen Stock Exchange dropped by 8.4 percent to 3.87 trillion yuan (US$0.51 trillion).

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both yuan-denominated A shares and hard currency B shares, closed at 4,000.74 points on Friday, down by 4.2 percent from the close a week earlier.

The smaller Shenzhen Component Index closed at 12,432.7 points, down 1.96 percent.

Shanghai Stock Exchange has 849 listed companies with 893 share types. Of the 1.13 trillion shares issued at Shanghai, only 262.1 billion are tradable. Shenzhen has 604 listed companies with 646 stocks. Of 254 billion shares floated at Shenzhen, only 132 billion are tradable.

(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2007)