Unlocked stock may choke market rally

SHANGHAI: The scheduled release of 31.7 billion non-tradable shares of 84 publicly traded companies in the Chinese stock market, valued at about 335.5 billion yuan at current market price, could deepen the correction to the rally which sent the benchmark indicator up over 80 percent since the beginning of the year.

Although the amount of non-tradable stocks that will be unlocked next month is 67.9 percent smaller in value compared to the 1.05-trillion yuan worth of newly unlocked shares in July -- the highest so far this year -- it still accounts for 2.83 percent of the total market capitalization.

After the unlocking, the entire share capital of 47 enterprises out of the 84 can be traded freely on the stock exchanges.