(Yicai Global) April 8 -- China must guarantee the supply of essential and emergency  drugs, Premier Li Keqiang emphasized at a regular meeting of the state  cabinet on April 3. The country must improve the monitoring and early  warning mechanism while ensuring that the supply of medicines remains as  necessary, Li explained. 

The reduction in social security charges will cut the basic  pension fund income of company employees, but it will not affect  pensions. The fund income of company employees was CNY3.7 trillion  (USD550.9 billion), and expenditure was CNY3.2 trillion last year.  Combined with 2017, the accumulated balance as of the end of last year  was CNY4.8 trillion, said Fu Jinling, director of the finance ministry's  social security department, at a state council meeting on April 4.

This year's pork supply gap may reach about 5.1 million tons.  The price will rise by half this year and boost the Consumer Price Index  by around 2 percent, an institute told China National Radio on April 4.  Pork prices will not rise in the short-term due to abundant meat  choices, an expert said.

Some 1,032 listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock  exchanges have released distribution plans as of the close of trading on  April 4, and nearly all of them have mentioned cash dividends. 23  companies will issue extra shares directly and 163 companies will  transfer dividends into new shares, accounting for 2.23 percent and 15.8  percent of the total. Dividends for 116 stocks yielded over 3 percent,  and 60 of them exceeded 4 percent and 30, over 5 percent.

The promising outlook for the Chinese stock market will attract  more investors. The number of newly opened accounts on the Shenzhen  exchange doubled monthly to nearly three million. Many executives took  the chance to cash out their shares as retailers join the market. Listed  companies have issued 2,210 notices on such moves. The estimated market  value of share offloading on the A-share market soared to CNY36.6  billion (USD5.4 billion). Company's shareholders, executives and  employee have all joined the wave of shedding.

The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 155.81 points or 5 percent  on a weekly basis to 3,426.57 points. The Shenzhen Securities Index  climbed 508.94 points to 10,415.80, with a weekly growth of 5.1 percent.  The Growth Enterprise Market index closed 83.71 points higher at  1,776.26 points, up 4.94 percent for the week.

Nine listed-banks have disclosed perpetual bond issuance plans amounting to CNY470 billion, according to rough data. 

China issued over three times the amount of local government  bonds compared to the month before at CNY624.5 billion. It issued CNY1.4  trillion in local government debt in the first quarter, an increase of  54.8 percent.

Editor: William Clegg