China: Stocks end lower ahead of new listings

[SHANGHAI] China stocks closed down on Monday as investors sold shares to raise funds for upcoming new listings this week.

A larger pipeline of supply means investors will unlock capital in some stock investments in order to subscribe for new initial public offerings (IPOs). The official Xinhua news agency said in a report 22 new share offerings were putting pressure on pricing, with Wednesday alone seeing 10 new offerings.

The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 0.9 per cent, to 3,513.58, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.7 per cent, to 3,229.32 points.

Among the most active stocks in Shanghai were Bank Of China , down 1.3 per cent to 4.41 yuan; CSR Corp , down 1.3 per cent to 10.14 yuan and Agricultural Bank Of China, down 2.1 per cent to 3.68 yuan.

In Shenzhen, BOE Technology, down 3.3 percent to 3.22 yuan; TCL CORP, down 0.8 per cent to 3.97 yuan and China Vanke, down 2.5 per cent to 13.12 yuan were among the most actively traded.

Foreign investment flowing into Shanghai from Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up -1.13 billion yuan of the 13 billion yuan daily quota.

Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 32.1 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 13.9 billion shares.

REUTERS