Chinese share prices dropped Friday after failing to recover from a drastic dive the previous trading day following concerns about possible aggravated inflation.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended the daily trading at 5,315.54 points, down 14.48 points, or 0.27 percent.

The indicator peaked at 5,382.7 points and bottomed at 5,217.64 points, a daily volatility rate of 3.1 percent.

The Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller bourse in Guangdong Province closed at 17,160.12 points, down 305.34 points, or 1.75 percent.

Losses outnumbered gains by 527 to 337 in Shanghai, and 405 to 223 in Shenzhen.

The combined daily transaction volume on the two exchanges shrank to 118.19 billion yuan (US$15.9 billion) from 128.2 billion yuan (US$17.2 billion) Thursday.

According to market observers, the reluctance of investors to trade was partly due to the fact that the central bank sent a warning signal on inflation on Thursday in its report on the implementation of monetary policy in the third quarter.

Market observers said the major index in Shanghai lost around 10 percent in this week's trading.

In Friday trading, PetroChina, China's biggest oil producer who accounted for 25 percent of the total weight of counters for the Shanghai Composite Index, slipped 0.03 percent to 38.18 yuan.

However, other blue chips, those in the financial sector in particular, were on an upward trend.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank rose 1.09 percent to 8.35 yuan, Bank of China was up 1.41 percent to 7.19 yuan, China Construction Bank climbed 0.56 percent to 10.83 yuan and China Life, the nation's largest life insurer, increased 1.44 percent to 62.11 yuan.

Petrochemical heavyweight Sinopec, the nation's largest oil refiner, increased 3.87 percent to 23.36 yuan.

The Hushen 300 Index, which tracks one fifth of stocks on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses, closed at 5,040.52 points, down 53.15 points, or 1.04 percent, from the previous trading day.

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2007)