The court in east China's Shandong Province began its hearing last Thursday on a case in which a retail investor from Zaozhuang city in the same province is suing the listed Bohai Group for disclosing false information which caused him losses of 9,434 yuan.

The plaintiff, Zhang He, said he bought 1,500 shares of Bohai stocks in three batches last August at prices ranging from 12.4 yuan to 12.18 yuan.

But as the price of the stock continued tumbling ever since, he was forced to sell the shares at 6.17 yuan on January 29 this year.

The plaintiff insists that false information from the Bohai Group violated his right of awareness and was responsible for his losses.

The defendant denied that its behavior was an infringement of investors' rights of awareness, saying that even there was a falsification, it was of a very minor nature and should have had no decisive effect on investors' judgment.

Bohai Group was penalized by the China Securities Regulatory Commission last year for major neglect and false information in disclosure documents.

The shortage of judges with good financial knowledge has prevented Chinese courts from taking any action against rampant irregularities in information disclosure by China's listed firms.

However, a recent notice by the Supreme People's Court has removed the obstacle for retail investors lodging suits against listed firms, though currently only cases against firms publicly penalized by the stock market watchdog will be accepted by the court.

Bohai Group is one of the 16 firms on the list of the Supreme People's Court that were penalized by the CSRC between March 31, 2000, and November 19, 2001, and hence open to legal action by investors.

The court has yet to rule on the case.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2002)