Share trade halted in 66 Sichuan firms after quake

SHANGHAI: China's two main stock exchanges will suspend share trade in 66 companies from southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday following Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the region, the official Shanghai Securities News said on Tuesday. It said 45 shares would be suspended on the Shanghai stock exchange and 21 on the Shenzhen exchange. Most brokerage sales and transactions systems in Sichuan Province's capital Chengdu are functioning normally, the paper said. The death toll from Monday's earthquake, which struck about half an hour before the market closed and was felt in Beijing and Shanghai, has risen to nearly 10,000 in Sichuan Province alone. Several highrise buildings in Shanghai's financial district were evacuated following the earthquake, although the Shanghai stock exchange said the market was functioning normally. "There was shock, but no danger," the Shanghai Securities News said of the impact in Shanghai.