Shanghai index stumbles again at midday
SHARES in Shanghai tumbled as much as 5.45 percent this morning after commodities ranging from oil to gold plunged on international markets.
The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, dived 3.10 percent, or 116.75 points, to 3,644.86 at 11:30am.
Losers in the Shanghai market outnumbered gainers 594 to 235 while 23 were unchanged.
The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the mainland's smaller stock market, was down 1.46 percent, or 16.40 points, to 1,103.65.
Zhongjin Gold Corp, China's largest publicly traded gold miner by market value, led metals shares lower, tumbling as much as the 10 percent daily limit. It ended the session down 9.69 percent to 88.58 yuan (US$12.55) this morning.
Shandong Gold, the second biggest producer of the metal, dropped the daily cap of 10 percent to 171.85 yuan.
Gold tumbled 5.9 percent in New York yesterday – the steepest drop since June 13, 2006 – after the Federal Reserve reduced US borrowing costs less than investors expected and signaled more cuts won't be as aggressive.
Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell US$4.94 to settle at US$104.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the largest one-day price decline for a front-month oil contract since 1991.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Asia's biggest oil refiner, also known as Sinopec, stumbled 3.64 percent to close the session at 13.25 yuan while PetroChina, the country's biggest oil producer, slumped 6.73 percent to 21.06 yuan.
Sinopec said it received 12.3 billion yuan in subsidies from the Chinese government in compensation for losses caused by government caps on oil prices, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today.
