(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-17 14:24

BEIJING - Chinese shares closed more than three percent lower in the morning session on Monday than the previous trading day, dragged on by the blue-chip stocks.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 125.81 points, or 3.17 percent, to close at 3,836.86 points in the morning session. It traded between the highest 3,941.26 points and the lowest 3,836.32 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index ended down 504.55 points, or 3.48 percent, to 13,313.10 points.

The Hushen 300 Index, which accounts for 60 percent of the market value in China's stock market and reflects the performance of China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges closed at 4,012.21 points, down 3.50 percent.

Market heavyweight, PetroChina, which accounts for a quarter of the Shanghai composite index, led the price dive.

PetroChina itself dipped 0.94 percent to close at 22.12 yuan, while Sinopec lose 4.24 percent or 0.59 yuan to end at 13.31 yuan.

Financial blue-chip stocks also contributed to price decline. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China slumped 3.31 percent, and Ping An Insurance Co., a giant insurer in China, dropped 4.79 percent to close at 60.03 yuan.

Affected by turmoil in regional stock markets, unclear market perspective and subprime risks in the US. financial market, investor confidence is really low, said the analyst.

Aggregate turnover on the two stock markets was 49.6 billion yuan (about seven billion US dollars), a sharp decrease from that of the previous trading day.

Losses outnumbered gains by 749 to 44 in Shanghai and by 584 to 31 in Shenzhen.