Domestic share sales set to return

The ban on domestic share sales could be lifted in three to four months, Shanghai Stock Exchange Executive Vice President Zhou Qinye said in an interview with Bloomberg. New listings on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges were halted in May as the government launched a scheme to convert US$200 billion of state-held non-tradable shares into tradable ones. The share conversion scheme was intended boost China’s underperforming capital markets. Zhou said that allowing companies like PetroChina, which is already listed in Hong Kong and New York, to sell shares domestically could propel China’s markets to third in Asia by the end of 2007, up from seventh place.