SHANGHAI: A searing sell-off in education companies walloped Chinese shares on Monday after Beijing barred for-profit tutoring in core school subjects and restricted foreign investment in the sector.

In early trade, China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was down 1.42%, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.02% and the Hang Seng index slipped 2.03%.

Sub-indexes tracking education and related sectors declined sharply. The CSI Education Index was last down 7.6% and the Hang Seng Tech index slumped 3.73%.

China’s announcement on Friday it is banning for-profit tutoring in core school subjects to ease financial pressures on families sent shockwaves through its vast private education sector. Hong Kong shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc crashed 35.76% after its US shares plummeted more than 50% on Friday. The company provides tutoring and test preparation services in China.