A local court in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong province, has sentenced five persons involved in a massive stock manipulation case to jail terms ranging from two years and three months to three and a half years.

Between October 1998 and February 2001, a number of manipulators, including the five people, guided the prices of the stock "Yi'an Science", on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, one of the two bourses in China.

Through a series of sophisticated manipulative activities, under over 700 different names, the criminal group used 3.7 billion yuan (about US$450 million) to send the prices of the stock skyrocketing to 126.31 yuan (more than US$15) from 7.55 yuan.

The manipulation resulted in huge profits of approximately 460 million yuan (almost US$56 million) and aroused serious concern among the public.

In recent years, the government has looked into and punished a number of stock manipulation cases, in an effort to regularize thestock market.

The five people are: Li Hongqing, vice-president of Yi'an Group,on Thursday sentenced to three and a half years; Luo Jianzi, three and a half years plus a fine of 500,000 yuan, or around 60,000 US dollars; Cheng Bingfang, two years and nine months; He Xinxiang, two years and three months; and Wang Qi, two years and three months.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2003)