The first-quarter profit was not expected by analysts and was downgraded by four investment banks

Sina shares fell 15% per cent this week, the biggest in a week since December 2008, as the first-quarter profit was not expected by analysts and the downgrade by four investment banks, foreign media reported.

On the New York Stock Exchange in Friday, Sina's shares fell 6.27 U.S. dollars, at $106.88, down 5.54%. After trading on the same day, the shares fell 0.65 U.S. dollars, each share fell to 106.23 U.S. dollars, a decrease of 0.61%. In the past 52 weeks, the company's share price has been up to $147.12, at a minimum of 33.93 dollars.

Bocom Analysys Nomura Ltd., in a Friday study, downgraded the Sina stock rating from "buy" to "buy for the long haul" (long-term purchase). Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered group, and future asset securities companies downgraded Sina's stock rating in Thursday.

May 11, Sina announced the first quarter as of March 31 of 22,011 year earnings. The report showed that Sina's net profit in the first quarter was $15 million, down 39% from a year earlier, below the average forecast of 15.4 million US dollar net profit from the 8 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Mr. Chao, Sina's CEO, said in the company's first-quarter earnings call that the fall in net profits in the first quarter was mainly due to an increase in Sina's microblogging service spending. Chao said Sina's total investment in microblogging services could reach 100 million dollars in order to build the social networking platform and fight competition. As of April, Sina Micro-blog service users have reached 140 million.

Sina estimates that total sales in the second quarter could be $112 million trillion to $115 million trillion, below the average forecast of $118.4 million by 16 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sina's earnings report said revenue from advertising revenues could grow to $92 million in the second quarter of June from $72.3 million trillion in the first quarter.

According to a Bloomberg survey, 13 analysts gave Sina stock a "buy" rating, 8 analysts gave a "hold" rating and 5 analysts gave a "sell" rating. As of May 11, 6.4% of Sina's total issue shares were shorted (borrowing shares and selling them and hoping to profit by falling share prices), according to data explorers, a research firm based in New York. On April 26, 9.2% of Sina's total issue shares were sold short.