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Many small investors are likely to continue their stock market forays despite disillusionment among a few over the tripling of the stamp tax on trading that prompted the sharpest dive in three months on Wednesday.

"The expected fall is a good opportunity to buy more," said Mrs Guo, 67, who arrived at a branch of Guoxin Securities in Beijing one hour ahead of the opening time of the stock market at 9:30 a.m..

Overnight, the Ministry of Finance announced the rise in the stamp tax on securities trading -- the amount of tax paid when buying or selling shares -- from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent as from Wednesday.

The move came after a series of central bank measures, including hikes in interest rates and bank reserve requirements as well as the widening the yuan's floating range against U.S. dollar on May 18.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks both yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, dropped 6.5 percent from the previous close, with the smaller Shenzhen Component Index down 6.16 percent and the Hushen 300 Index reflecting the combined movements of both exchanges down 6.76 percent.

Mr Gao, who declined to give his full name, said the duty rise would only lead to a slight correction and he was still confident in the markets that had tripled in value since 2005 after four years of stagnation.

The markets rebounded for a while shortly after opening lower in the morning, raising cheers from small investors.

However, when the markets plunged after 10:30 a.m., some, including Mrs. Guo, began to regret their purchases.

Wang Baoliang, 44, said he would sell all his shares and wait and see in the near future. Having entered the markets 10 years ago, the taxi driver said the prices were too high and the a lack of credibility of listed companies was one of the major threats to Chinese investors.

With six years of experience, Mr Sun, in his 50s, was unsatisfied with the government move. "A tripling of the tax is definitely too much for the markets as the rise in share prices had real supportive factors such as strong profit increases of listed companies", he said.

The rapid rise in China's stock market has aroused official concern about the impact of a negative correction as measures to stem price increases had previously shown no obvious effects.

The tax change might, however, have a limited impact, argued Bert Hofman, the World Bank's chief economist for China.

He predicted the tax hike might shift investment to the longer term.

Ha Jiming, chief economist of China International Capital Corporation, said the move would affect frequent trading and have a short-term psychological impact.

A 71-year-old surnamed Yu, a market veteran since 1993, said the goal of the move was to encourage the healthy development of the markets.

Yu expected a negative correction for one or two weeks, but did not plan to sell. "I chose shares based on company performance and I will hold them for the longer term," he said.

Despite the negative sentiment, the number of new accounts showed no sign of slowing on Wednesday, said Wang Wenzhong, of China Galaxy Securities in Beijing.

By May 28, the number of accounts nationwide exceeded 100 million, with new A-share accounts hitting 14 million this year, almost five times the total A-share accounts opened last year, according to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp.

Editor: Yan