Air China, the country's flagship carrier, said on Tuesday it had scaled down its Shanghai stock offer by 39 percent to 1.639 billion shares from an original plan of 2.7 billion shares after weak subscription from institutional investors, the China Daily reported. Analysts said Air China's share price was set too high to attract investors, given that so many firms are set to list in Shanghai in the wake of the government lifting its ban on domestic IPOs in May, said the paper. Air China set the price range for its Shanghai listing at between 2.75 and 2.95 yuan per share last week, 3 to 10 percent less than its H shares. This is a smaller discount than Bank of China's indicative price range before its Shanghai IPO in June. Compared to its H shares, the bank's share price was set at a 9 to 12 percent discount. "At a time when the aviation industry's overall prospects are far from promising due to soaring fuel prices, Air China's shares are too expensive for us to make a profit. It's not a good pick for us," said an unnamed fund manager at Bosera Asset Management Co Ltd.