STAR 50 Index little changed on first day

The STAR 50 Index, a new index tracking 50 top firms in the STAR Market, remained almost unchanged on Thursday, its first trading day. 

It closed at 1,494.14 points, edging down 0.21 percent, with an intraday high of 1,512.47 points.

The index consists of firms with 1,000 points originally based on their prices on December 31 last year. The index was released after trading on Wednesday at 1,497.23 points. 

The index started real-time change and full-day operation for the first time on Thursday.

Until Wednesday, the STAR Market had 140 listed firms with a market value of 2.79 trillion yuan (US$398.6 billion). They raised a total of 217.9 billion yuan through initial public offerings in the STAR Market.

Several companies will launch tracking funds for the index, which could bring in more investors, as there will be no 500,000-yuan threshold, and add liquidity to the market.

The 50 firms cover next-generation information technology, biomedicine and advanced equipment industries. They include Kingsoft Office, AMEC and Montage, three firms with a market value of over 100 billion yuan each.