Banking shares lead decline on mainland bourses

BEIJING — Share prices on the Chinese mainland markets ended lower to post a third consecutive session of losses on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai index hitting a six-month low, even as data showed the country’s trade performance in January exceeded expectations.

Investors dumped blue chips, including energy and banking firms, as well as infrastructure and property companies.

“As the Chinese New Year is coming, A-shares tend to be sold off,” said Laura Wang, Jonathan Garner and Corey Ng, analysts at Morgan Stanley, in a report. “The amount will surge one or two weeks before the Spring Festival.”

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was down 47.21 points or 1.43 percent at 3,262.05. The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.95 percent. Its financial sector sub-index fell 2.60 percent, the consumer staples sector was up 1.69 percent, the real estate index fell 1.51 percent and healthcare sub-index was up 1.30 percent.

The smaller Shenzhen index ended 1.23 percent higher and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index rose 1.55 percent.

An index tracking the 50 most representative blue-chips in Shanghai, dubbed China’s “Nifty 50”, dropped 2.8 percent. On Wednesday, the index posted its biggest single-day percentage loss in two years. China’s January trade growth easily beat market expectations, with exports rising 11.1 percent year-on-year and imports surging 36.9 percent, customs data showed on Thursday.

The Hushen 300 index futures closed lower on Thursday, with the contract for February 2018 down 1.14 percent to finish at 3,996.80 points.

The March contract lost 1.17 percent to close at 4,000.60 points, the June contract was down 1.18 percent to finish at 4,013.00 points and the September 2018 contract went down 0.83 percent to finish at 4,030.60 points.

So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 0.06 percent, while the CSI300 is down 0.5 percent and China’s H-share index listed in Hong Kong is up 6.2 percent. Shanghai stocks have declined 4.93 percent this month. About 20.13 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 92.8 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 21.68 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 26.09 billion.

Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was 0.21 percent firmer while Japan’s Nikkei index closed up 1.13 percent.