Chinese share prices hit new high in morning session

    BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese share prices hit new high in morning session on Monday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising to 4.839.95 points, 82.48 points higher over the previous close.

    Banks and petrochemical stocks led the advance. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 4.04 percent to 6.96 yuan per share. The Bank of China soared 4.99 percent to 6.10 yuan per share.

    The Shenzhen Component Index on the small stock exchange market dropped 174.54 points to close at 16,148.9 points in the morning session.

    The trading turnover on the two bourses is more than 127 billion yuan (16.78 billion US dollars) in the morning session.

    China's consumer price index rose 5.6 percent in July compared with a year earlier, nearly twice the official three percent target for 2007. Analysts expected the high CPI figure to bring more tightening measures.