Shanghai index sinks below the 3,000 points mark

China’s stock markets continued to fall on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai stock index sinking below the key psychological level of 3,000 points.

The A-share markets opened higher before seeing declines in the following trading hours. Dragged by military, financial and cycle heavyweights, the Shanghai Composite Index plunged by 1.51 percent or 45.93 points to finish at 2,997.10.

The smaller Shenzhen Component Index declined by 1.95 percent to end at around 9,513.00 points, while the ChiNext Index, China’s Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, fell by 2.32 percent to finish at 1,630.19 points.

The combined turnover of the two bourses contracted to 768.3 billion yuan (US$114.4 billion) from 819.3 billion yuan recorded in the previous trading day.

CSSC Science&Technology Co Ltd, a Shanghai-based company principally engaged in general project contracting business, as well as the provision of engineering design, survey, consulting and supervision services, saw its shares down by the daily 10 percent cap to stand at 14.13 yuan a share.

Guosheng Securities said that there will not be too much fluctuations for the A-share markets in the short term and it encouraged investors to remain optimistic and seek more investment opportunities from the recent corrections.

Wu Xiaoqiu, vice-president of the Renmin University of China and director of its Institute of Finance, was reported to say during the Boao Forum for Asia 2019, which kicked off on Tuesday, that risks facing China’s capital market have been stabilizing, although worries about local government debts and a small amount of corporate debts remain.