China stocks tumble 3% on weak investment data, global woes

An Investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.[Photo/IC]

China stocks slumped more than 3 percent on Monday as weak investment data fuelled worries about the health of the Chinese economy and as global equity markets fell on fears that Britain may vote to leave the European Union.

The worries offset lingering optimism that MSCI may decide this week to add Chinese shares to its emerging market index.

Posting their biggest fall in nearly four months, the blue-chip CSI300 index slumped 3.1 percent to 3,066.34 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 3.2 percent to 2,832.51 points.

Investor sentiment was also fragile ahead of the first anniversary of June 2015's near-meltdown in China's stock markets, which sent shockwaves across global financial markets.

Despite several attempted rallies since, the country's benchmark indexes have still not been able to pull much off the lows hit last August, though they have not retested early 2016 lows.

"One year after the crash, China's stocks, bonds, property and currency are still expensive," wrote Hong Hao, chief strategist of BOCOM International.

He said the Shanghai index was still roughly 17 percent above the theoretical support level of 2,500 even after almost halving from last summer's peak.

Shares fell across the board, with small-caps leading the decline. Shenzhen's start-up board ChiNext tumbled nearly 6 percent.