Shanghai Composite 4,070.50 2:44AM ET -95.38 (-2.29%)
SHANGHAI'S stock market closed lower this morning. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, known as Sinopec and a heavyweight in the market, lead the decline.
The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, lost 0.46 percent, or 19.32 points, to 4,146.56.
Losers in the Shanghai market outnumbered gainers 541 to 281 while 30 were unchanged.
The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the mainland's smaller stock market, was down 0.41 percent, or 5.45 points, to 1,318.93.
Sinopec, Asia's biggest oil refiner, continued to drop after losses the past two trading days as investors showed concern that rising oil prices will increase the refiner's costs.
Sinopec lost 1.64 percent, 0.25 yuan (4 US cents), to finish the session at 14.97 yuan.
Crude oil yesterday rose 0.8 percent to settle at a record close of US$108.75 a barrel in New York, having earlier surged to an intraday high of US$109.72 a barrel, the highest since trading began in 1983, as the dollar gained. It recently traded at US$108.80 a barrel in after-hours trading.
Chinese oil refiners cannot raise product prices to pass the rising cost of crude oil onto customers unless they have government approval.
But the record-high oil price helped coal producers this morning on expectations demand for the alternative energy source will increase.
Shenhua Energy, the nation's largest coal producer, gained 1.74 percent, or 0.87 yuan, to 50.90 yuan. The company yesterday said it boosted production of the fuel by 26.5 percent to 14.8 million metric tons last month and cut exports to meet rising domestic demand.
PetroChina Co, the biggest component in the Shanghai market, edged up 0.04 percent, or 0.01 yuan, to 22.27 yuan. The biggest oil producer in Asia plans to shut about half of its refinery in Jinzhou in northeastern China for maintenance starting mid-April. The seven-million-ton-a-year refinery in Liaoning Province will shut one of its two fuel production units for a month, said Pei Hongbin, president of PetroChina Jinzhou Petrochemical Co, Bloomberg News reported today.
Elsewhere, Shanghai International Airport Co, operator of China's second-busiest airfield, fell the most in more than two years after predicting revenue will decline 10 percent on the nation's plan to change the structure of airport fees.
The company dropped as much as 10 percent to 26.79 yuan this morning, and closed the session at 26.84 yuan.
The General Administration of Civil Aviation on March 1 began a new fee structure for China's airports that will cut revenue, Shanghai International said today in a statement to the stock exchange without elaboration. The regulator changed the fees to make them in line with global practices, the company said.
Shanghai International Airport manages Pudong International Airport and Hongqiao Airport.
