BEIJING - Locked-up shares worth about 51.66 billion yuan (about $7.5 billion) will become eligible for trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges next week.

About 4.8 billion shares from 48 companies will become tradable on the exchanges from December 12 to 16, according to RoyalFlush Information, a financial information service provider.

This is higher than 30.41 billion yuan of shares unlocked in the week just past.

Guangxi Guiguan Electric Power, one of the country's top hydropower producers, will unlock over 2.47 billion shares (worth about 15.9 billion yuan), the largest group of locked-up shares to hit the market next week.

Under China's market rules, major shareholders of locked-up stocks have to wait one to two years before they can sell.

Some 374.2 billion yuan worth of locked-up shares are predicted to be eligible for trade this month.