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

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

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 ortwo 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 ofstocks unlocked this week. New shares will put some downward pressure on the market dueto the increase in stock supply.

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

Source: China Daily