(Yicai Global) June 17 -- Seazen Holdings’ shares jumped today even as the Chinese property developer’s founder Wang Zhenhua was sentenced to five years and the Shanghai stock market languished.

The shares [SHA:601155] closed almost 2 percent higher at CNY32.23 (USD4.55) each, after gaining as much as 3.7 percent in afternoon trading. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was little changed.

Wang was sentenced to five years in prison on child molestation charges today, and Zhou Yanfen, who was suspected of acting as a procurer for him, was given four years on the same charge, a Shanghai court announced on Weibo.

Almost a year ago, Seazen revealed that Wang had been detained. That followed a complaint to police that day of a nine-year-old girl being raped. The Shanghai-based firm then appointed his son, Wang Xiaosong, as its new executive chairman.

Last July, Shanghai police announced that Wang, the then 57-year-old chairman and de facto controller of Seazen, had been detained on suspicion of molesting a 9-year-old girl, and that Zhou had acted as the procurer in the case.

As Wang was a key figure in the listed company, its shares nearly halved in value to CNY23.6 (USD3.30) from about CNY40 in the wake of the scandal. But since last October, the stock has recovered and closed at CNY38.85 on Jan. 9, essentially rebounding to its pre-scandal level.

Editor: Peter Thomas