SHANGHAI, June 8 |
SHANGHAI, June 8 (Reuters) - China's main stock index closed down 0.5 percent on Friday, dragged by financials, on fears that a surprise Chinese interest rate cut signals the government is expecting to publish more weak economic data soon.
Investors worried over the health of the world's second-largest economy, which dragged down the Shanghai Composite Index to 2,281.4 points, extending Thursday's fall which brought the market to a two-month closing low.
The index declined 3.9 percent for the week, the market's steepest weekly drop since mid-December 2011.
The PBOC announced a cut of 25 basis points in benchmark interest rates that took effect on Friday, its first rate cut since the depths of the 2008/09 financial crisis.
The central bank simultaneously raised the upward limit for deposit rates and cut the lower limit for lending rates, narrowing the gap between deposit and lending rates to boost sluggish loan demand amid a sharp slowdown in the real economy.
Financial stocks declined on concerns that the tightened rate spread might cut into bank profitability.
($1 = 6.3635 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Yixin Chen and Pete Sweeney; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
No comments:
Post a Comment