Lock-up shares worth ¥17.5bn eligible for trade

Lock-up shares worth 17.5 billion yuan (2.86 billion U.S. dollars) will become eligible for trade on China's stock market next week.

Around one billion shares from 23 companies will become tradable on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses between July 20 and July 24, down from 18.6 billion yuan shares unlocked in the past week, according to Southwest Securities.

Under China's market rules, major shareholders of non-tradable stocks are subject to one or two years of lock-up before they are permitted to trade.

Shanghai Beite Technology Co., Ltd. will see non-tradable shares worth around 65 million yuan become tradable on July 20, the largest number of such shares to hit the stock market in the period.

Chinese shares continued to rally on Friday as the market recovers following weeks of sharp ups and downs.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 3.51 percent to close at 3,957.35, while the smaller Shenzhen Component Index soared 5.24 percent to close at 13,004.96. The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, climbed 5.95 percent to end at 2,783.32.