SHANGHAI: China stocks fell on Thursday as investors turned cautious amid trade talks between China and US in Washington.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.7 percent, to 3,864.05 while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.5 percent to 3,154.28 points.
The United States and China will launch trade talks on Thursday in a bid to avert a damaging tariff war, with the White House's harshest China critic relegated to a supporting role, senior Trump administration officials said on Wednesday.
The CSI300 financial sub-index was lower by 0.53 percent and the consumer staples sector was down 1.33 percent while the real estate index dropped 0.57 percent.
Healthcare sub-index fell 1.2 percent. The smaller Shenzhen index ended down 0.52 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.84 percent.
Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.22 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.53 percent.
At 07:08 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.363 per US dollar, 0.12 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.3705.
The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were China Petroleum Engineering Corp, up 10.11 percent, followed by Suzhou Douson Drilling & Production Equipment Co Ltd, up 10.04 percent and Shanghai Huayi Group Corp Ltd, up 10.04 percent.
The largest percentage losers in the Shanghai index were Shanghai Diesel Engine Co Ltd, down 9.99 percent, followed by JDM JingDa Machine Ningbo Co Ltd, down 9.98 percent and Henan Yinge Industrial Investment Co Ltd , down 8.43 percent.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 4.6 percent while the CSI300 has fallen 4.1 percent. China's H-share index listed in Hong Kong is up 5 percent. Shanghai stocks have risen 2.34 percent this month.
About 11.40 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 79.5 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 14.34 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 13.05 billion.
As of 07:08 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 20.73 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.