China stocks fall on real estate, financial shares sell-off

China’s stocks fell on Thursday, pressured by the selling of real estate and financial shares, as investors booked profits in sector leaders that had stellar gains this year.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 20.67 points, or 0.62 percent, at 3,317.19 points.

The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 1.18 percent, with the financial sector sub-index lower by 1.53 percent, the consumer staples sector down 1.11 percent, the real estate index down 4.21 percent and the healthcare sub-index down 0.57 percent.

The smaller Shenzhen Component Index ended down 1.25 percent while the start-up board ChiNext index was weaker by 0.96 percent.

Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 1.34 percent while Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 0.57 percent.

The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai index were Zhangjiagang Freetrade Science & Technology Group Co up 10.05 percent, followed by JiLin Sino-Microelectronics Co gaining 10.03 percent and Lawton Development Co up by 10.02 percent.

The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were LONGi Green Energy Technology Co down 10 percent, followed by Tongwei Co losing 8.05 percent and Pci-Suntek Technology Co down by 7.51 percent.

So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 7.55 percent and the CSI300 is up 21 percent while China’s H-share index listed in Hong Kong is up 24 percent. Shanghai stocks have declined 1.63 percent this month. About 15.66 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 90 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 17.40 billion shares a day.