A Chinese man has been sentenced to death for killing a woman in a dispute over stock investment losses amid a nationwide frenzy to cash in on the country’s soaring share markets, state media said yesterday.

A bull run has nearly quadrupled Shanghai’s benchmark stock index in the past 18 months, and students, pensioners and housewives have joined the growing army of small investors. More than 28 million stock investment accounts have been opened so far this year, compared with just over 3 million in all of 2006, generating dramatic stories – bitter or sweet – across the country on a daily basis.

Li Gongxin, from the northeastern city of Harbin, was asked by a former neighbour last year to help her invest in the stock market on the understanding that he would get 40 percent of the profits for his expert advice, the Legal Daily said.

But the retired neighbour, surnamed Wang, lost more than 30,000 yuan (about $4,000) in less than two months after she bought shares, with Li acting as her “senior adviser”, the newspaper said.