China shares fall on profit-taking

China stocks fell on Friday, leaving main indexes down for the week, as investors responded to China's hike in market interest rates by taking profits in sectors that have had robust gains this year. At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 26.29 points or 0.8 percent at 3,266.15. The index shed 0.7 percent for the week, extending its streak of weekly losses to five.
The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 1.12 percent, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 1.11 percent, the consumer staples sector down 1.31 percent , the real estate index off 2.23 percent and healthcare sub-index down 1.22 percent. The smaller Shenzhen index ended down 0.72 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.58 percent. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.41 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.62 percent.
At 07:00 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.6079 per US dollar, 0.02 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.6095. The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Wenyi Suntech Co Ltd up 10.02 percent, followed by Beijing Hualian Hypermarket Co Ltd gaining 10 percent and Harbin Churin Group Jointstock Co Ltd also up by 10 percent. The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Corp Ltd down 9.99 percent, followed by Inner Mongolia Eerduosi Resources Co Ltd losing 7.74 percent and Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology Co Ltd down by 7.23 percent.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 6.08 percent, the CSI300 is up 20.3 percent this year, while China's H-share index listed in Hong Kong is up 22.7 percent. Shanghai stocks have declined 0.75 percent this month. About 13.09 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 78.0 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 16.79 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 12.05 billion. As of 07:01 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 29.66 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average and above its 200-day moving average. The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 14.75 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2 percent. So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 0.18 percent to 28.68 trillion yuan.