Financial and transport shares send index down

Shanghai stocks fell yesterday, led by heavyweight financial and transport counters, as investors worried about tightening liquidity in the run-up to the year-end.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.92 percent to 3,275.78 points amid lukewarm trading sentiment ahead of the New Year.

Profits at China’s major industrial companies rose in November at the slowest pace in seven months on cooler prices, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.

Industrial companies’ profits totaled 785.82 billion yuan (US$120 billion) last month, rising 14.9 percent from a year earlier but that was a drop from 25.1 percent in October.

AVIC Securities wrote in a research note that the tight liquidity situation would pose pressure for the market in the near term.

Financial shares were weak amid the liquidity squeeze. Ping An Insurance (Group) Co tumbled 4.86 percent while China Merchants Bank lost 3.2 percent. 

Airliners also fell, with China Southern Airlines losing 3.25 percent, Air China dropping 3.08 percent and China Eastern Airlines declining 2.76 percent.

Automakers moved up after the government extended the purchase tax exemption on new-energy vehicles until the end of 2020.

Yangzhou Yaxing Motor Coach Co and Shenyang Jinbei Automotive Co both surged by the daily limit of 10 percent.