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Stocks drop 2.7% on weakening heavyweights

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-14 15:42

Chinese shares fell 2.71 percent on Tuesday despite early morning gains.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.21 percent in the morning session, but dropped 56.25 points to end at 2,017.32 despite growth in surrounding markets. The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 6,473.12 points, down 1.5 percent.

The poor performance of the domestic market against global stock increases greatly damaged investor confidence, analysts said.

Japanese Nikkei index soared 14.2 percent to 7,447.57 points, stimulated by a series of recent actions by governments and central banks worldwide to ease the global credit crunch. Hong Kong Hang Seng index also rose 3.33 percent.

Financial shares dropped in the afternoon on profit taking, after they made major gains Monday and Tuesday morning, said analysts. Citic Securities and Haitong Securities plunged by the daily limit of 10 percent to 20.41 yuan ($2.98) and 19.91 yuan respectively.

Other blue chips also suffered, which helped pulled down the overall market. PetroChina weakened 1.65 percent to 11.9 yuan, and China Merchants Bank dropped 1.91 percent to 14.93 yuan.

Dairy-related shares bucked the trend. Yili and Bright made second day surges by the daily limit of 10 percent after making clarifications on losses over melamine-tainted products.

Aggregate turnover edged up to 76.8 billion yuan from the previous day's 57.6 billion yuan. The two bourses saw 217 gains and 1,373 losses, with 120 unchanged.