Locked shares worth 59 bln yuan eligible for trade

BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Some 4.16 billion locked shares will become eligible for trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges this week.

Calculated with previous closing prices, the shares are worth 59.27 billion yuan (about 8.83 billion U.S. dollars). The figure surged 121.58 percent from a week ago.

Five firms will see more than 200 million locked shares become eligible for trade this week, including Hengli Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and Bestsun Energy Co. Ltd.

Under China's market rules, major shareholders must wait one to two years before they are permitted to sell shares.

Chinese stocks opened higher on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.2 percent to open at 3,027.8 and the Shenzhen Component Index up 0.34 percent at 9,583.45.