Chinese consumer confidence in the first quarter hit the highest level since 2007, but people's willingness to spend was slightly reduced by high property prices, said the latest market prospects research report.

Housing prices are unlikely to drop this year despite tightening measures adopted by the government to cool the property market, a top think tank and senior economists said on Wednesday.

Surging food prices and the strong economic rebound may trigger a record surge in China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) during April, analysts said on Tuesday.

Price activity is the result of human behavior. People do not randomly buy or sell in the market. The decision to buy or sell may be carefully considered, it may be a poor decision, or it may be an action later regretted. In all cases the decision contains an element of emotion and this emotional behavior is reflected in the movement of prices.

Chinese search engine Baidu Inc on Thursday said it benefited from Google's partial exit from the country and anticipates more customer gains in the next few quarters.