Punters bought into drug firms such as Sanjiu Biopharmaceutical, expecting them to post stronger sales with more and more reports emerging of cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the country.

Yuan-denominated A shares in Sanjiu Biopharm, another drug maker, surged 8.11 percent to 11.73 yuan to become the day's biggest gainer.

Hengrui Medicine's A shares were Shanghai's top gainer with a rise of 4.85 percent to 10.59 yuan.

Shanghai's B-share index finished 0.63 percent lower at 122.026 points, while Shenzhen's inched up 0.05 percent to 204.22, off its intraday low.

Hard currency B shares are available to Chinese and foreign investors.

"Strong gains in drug firms due to rising reports of SARS helped the broad market offset some of its weakness today," said analyst Dong Bin at China Securities.

"We expect drug firms to continue to perform well in the near term and help the benchmark Shanghai composite index to stand above the key 1,500-point support," he said.

The composite index, grouping A and B shares, closed down 1.226 points or 0.08 percent at 1,521.32 points, while the Shenzhen sub-index gained 8.75 points or 0.28 percent to finish at 3,127.66.

Jinan Qingqi Motorcycle Co was the biggest decliner and most actively traded counter on the B-share markets, falling its daily 5 percent limit to US$0.353 on heavy volume of 3.72 million shares.

Jinan Qingqi said earlier it was likely to post a heavy loss for 2002 after being in the red in 2000 and 2001, partly due to provisions for bad debts.

Jinan Qingqi's profit warning raised investor concerns that more poor results will be unveiled in the latter part of the annual reporting season, which runs until the end of April, dealers said.

The motorcycle maker was the top loser on the hard currency markets, after announcing it expects to post heavy losses in 2002 due to major imbalances on its books, including outstanding loan guarantees provided to other companies.

Jinan will face suspension of its shares as it will have racked up annual losses three consecutive years running.

Shandong Airlines' B shares dropped 2.48 percent to HK$3.15 after the regional carrier reported a net loss of 45.58 million yuan (US$5.51 million) for 2002 on Tuesday.

Shanghai's A-share index closed down 0.07 percent at 1,591.318 points and Shenzhen's slipped 0.10 percent to 449.72.

(China Daily April 3, 2003)