Lock-up shares worth 41.7 bln yuan to become tradable

BEIJING - Lock-up shares worth nearly 41.7 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) will become eligible for trade on China's stock market in the coming week.

More than 1.967 billion shares from 29 companies will become tradable on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from Monday to Friday, according to data compiled by Xinan Securities.

Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co, Ltd. will see the unlocking of nearly 826 million non-tradable shares on Friday, the largest volume to be released next week.

Under China's market rules, major shareholders of non-tradable stocks are subject to one or two years of lock-up before they are permitted to trade the shares.

The market value of these shares due next week shrank substantially from 57.6 billion yuan of stocks unlocked this week. New shares will put some downward pressure on the market due to the increase in stock supply.

The upcoming stocks will hit the market after a seven-year-record weekly plunge of 13.32 percent last week rattled investors in Chinese shares, which have realized remarkable performance since the last quarter of 2014.