China's shares held steady on Monday as investors sought bargains in airlines stocks which had been hit by fears over a return of the deadly Sars virus.
The benchmark Shanghai composite index, grouping hard-currency B shares and yuan-denominated A shares, closed unchanged at 1,635.499 points, having slid 1.34 percent on Friday on renewed worries over Sars.
China reported four new suspected cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Beijing on Sunday, days after the first reported death in the country from the virus since an outbreak last year.
But analysts dispelled concerns over a possible return of the virus for now, saying reports indicated all the new Sars cases might have originated from one research laboratory.
China Southern Airlines, the country's largest carrier, was one of the day's most active counters. Its A shares jumped 4.8 percent to 6.11 yuan following a 2.7 percent decline on Friday.
Airlines' bottom lines were dealt body blows last year after Sars kept people at home and forced the grounding of aircraft.
China Eastern Airlines Ltd rose 5.1 percent to 5.35 yuan while Hainan Airlines Co Ltd, a regional carrier partly owned by global financier George Soros, climbed 1.9 percent to 5.23 yuan.
But overall sentiment remained weak as investors fretted over the impact of a government-ordered clampdown on runaway lending, with analysts saying they expected the index to fall again to test the psychologically key 1,600-point level in coming days.
The index has fallen eight percent over the past three weeks.
"Credit tightening is still weighing on investor confidence," said analyst Zhou Lin at Huatai Securities.