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China stocks plunge 5 percent on airline sell-off
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China's key Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.3 percent Monday in a broad sell-off led by airlines, refiners and other large capitalized shares. Analysts said the selling reflected disappointment over a lack of new market support from the government.
The benchmark Shanghai index shed 130.74 points to close at 2,319.87.
It was the lack of any significant market-moving news, rather than any one development, that left investors discouraged, said Zhai Peng, a strategist at Guotai Junan Securities in Shanghai.
Online comments seen Monday that summarized a weekend discussion between government regulators and reporters for state-run media suggested the authorities "would not take any move to save the poor market," Zhai said.
"Obviously, the market was very disappointed with this," Zhai said. "This is far below investors' expectations."
Airlines, which reported falling passenger traffic last month partly due to visa restrictions related to the Olympics, were among the biggest decliners. China Southern Airlines dropped 9.9 percent to 5.27 yuan. Rivals Air China and China Eastern Airlines plunged by the 10 percent daily limit to 6.18 yuan and 5.02 yuan, respectively.
A rebound in oil prices also hit refiners.
Shanghai's biggest listed share, PetroChina, dropped 4 percent to 13.31 yuan, while China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. slumped 6 percent to 10.02 yuan.
Aluminum Corp. of China lost 8.8 percent to 9.43 yuan. China Oilfield Services sank 7.9 percent to 16.42 yuan.
The market has also suffered from liquidity strains as billions of newly tradable shares have begun trading this month, analysts say.
That pressure was seen in the relatively modest performance by China Southern Locomotive, whose 3 billion shares began trading Monday in Shanghai after an initial public offering that, along with a dual listing in Hong Kong, raised nearly US$1.5 billion.
China Southern Locomotive's shares peaked at 83 percent above their IPO price of 2.18 yuan in early trading but later fell back, closing at 3.45 yuan -- a gain of 58 percent. The closing price was 10.6 percent below the opening price of 3.86 yuan
Winston's comments: 83% above IPO price is modest performance ??

