SHANGHAI stocks yesterday extended losses for a third straight day as a fall in manufacturing and lower new lending sparked worries over China's economy.
The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.35 percent to 2,310.59 points yesterday, posting the longest losing streak in three months.
"A sign of caution emerged over the weekend as data pointed to an unexpected slowdown of growth in manufacturing in the first two months," Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist at Credit Agricole in Hong Kong said in an e-mail yesterday.
In the first two months, China's manufacturing output grew 9.9 percent from a year earlier, down from December's 10.3 percent.
Kowalczyk also said that "lower-than-anticipated new lending and overall social financing indicate more deceleration later in the year" and the inflation surge last month above consensus suggested that curbing prices "may lead to monetary tightening and additional downward pressure on growth."
New lending by commercial banks dropped to 620 billion yuan (US$98.7 billion) in February from a three-year-high of 1.07 trillion yuan in January and 710.7 billion yuan last February, according to the People's Bank of China.
Lenders fell after the PBOC reported lower lending over the weekend. The Bank of Communications, China's fifth-biggest lender, shed 1 percent to 4.74 yuan. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank fell 2.2 percent to 10.47 yuan, and China Minsheng Banking Corp lost 3.2 percent to 10.22 yuan.
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