The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both Class-A shares, traded in yuan and slated for domestic investors, and hard-currency Class-B shares, rose 0.22 percent to 1510.76.

Trading volume was nearly unchanged from Thursday at 3.15 billion yuan (US$379 million).

Analyst Wu Kan of Shanghai Securities Consulting Co. Ltd. said stocks heavily weighted in the index attracted some buying interest.

"Institutional investors are actually anxious to pull out of the market at this stage because they are thinking of capital settlement as the year-end approaches," Wu said.

So to minimize their losses, they are trying to drive up the index and lure small investors back into the game, he said.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission yesterday denied overseas media reports that PetroChina, the country's biggest oil producer, will sell 5.5 billion Class-A shares in an initial public offering next month.

"That's pure rumor and definitely impossible," an unidentified official in the regulator's listing department told the Shanghai Securities News.

Among yesterday's top gainers, China Shipping Development Co. Ltd. climbed 3.98 percent to 6.01 yuan, and Jiangxi Copper Co. Ltd. was up 2.65 percent at 5.04 yuan.

The Shanghai B-Share Index dropped 0.32 percent to 129.28.

Decliners outnumbered gainers 36-11, with six companies unchanged.

(Shanghai Daily November 2, 2002)