SSE checks abnormal moves

The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) announced Sunday a preliminary finding of a check into the abnormal stock transactions which caused the share prices of several Chinese banks to plummet dramatically a few minutes before trading closed Friday, and said it would further look into the matter.

The stock exchange attributed the irregular trading to some overseas index agencies, which used the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges as samples and adjusted their index constituents and weight distribution. As a result, a few qualified foreign institutional investors changed their holdings on Friday in accordance with the indexes they were following.

The shares of the 16 banks listed in Shanghai dropped by 3.45 percent Friday, with China CITIC Bank Corporation plunging by 8.67 percent to 3.58 yuan ($0.59) and China Construction Bank Corporation dropping by 6.16 percent to 3.96 yuan.