Stocks slump most in three weeks as oil slides further

Chinese mainland stocks fell the most in three weeks, led by energy producers and property developers, as oil tumbled and accelerating home prices sparked concern the government will act to cool the property market.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.4 percent at the close. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp lost 3 percent while Yanzhou Coal Mining Co slid 2 percent. Crude slumped the most in two months in New York after talks in Doha among major oil producers ended without any agreement on limiting output. Average new-home prices rose 1.9 percent from February, when they advanced 0.6 percent, according to SouFun Holdings Ltd, the owner of China's biggest property website.

Falling oil would undercut one of the biggest drivers in Chinese stocks this year. A gauge of energy shares jumped 11 percent in the three months through Friday, the most among industry groups, as crude rebounded. Housing demand helped boost growth in the first quarter, with output of real estate services adding 9.1 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said over the weekend. China's economy grew 1.1 percent from the previous quarter, the lowest since the bureau started publishing such data in 2011.

"The tumble in oil prices has significantly dented the appetite for risk assets globally and we are also impacted by the negative sentiment," said Wu Kan, a fund manager at JK Life Insurance in Shanghai. "The surge in property prices is irrational and has actually deepened investors' worry that it will lead to more crackdown measures."