China stocks end lower on Europe, U.S. weakness

Chinese stocks closed lower on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.77 percent, or 15.57 points, to 2,014.73.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 8,118.15, down 67.92 points, or 0.83 percent.

Combined turnover shrank to 71.8 billion yuan (11.4 billion U.S. dollars) from 72.99 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 622 to 311 in Shanghai and by 946 to 528 in Shenzhen.

Latest data showed Europe slipped back into recession. The European Union's statistics agency said on Thursday that the combined economy of the 17 countries that use the euro contracted 0.1 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter.

In the United States, damages from superstorm Sandy emerged with a worse-than-expected revenue from global retailing giant Wal-Mart and weakened manufacturing in the Philadelphia and New York regions.

On Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 0.2 percent to 12,542.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 0.2 percent to 1,353.33. The Nasdaq composite index lost 0.4 percent to 2,836.94.

Insurers led Friday's fall. China Life Insurance Company Limited tumbled 3.5 percent to 17.37 yuan.

Ship companies also performed poorly, with China CSSC Holdings Limited down 3.5 percent to 18.81 yuan. Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited dropped 2.76 percent to 10.91 yuan.

Bucking the trend, shares related to ecological construction continued to gain on Friday after an amendment to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, approved on Wednesday, highlighted the need to promote ecological progress.

Shares in Xuzhou Combustion Control Technology Co., Ltd. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 8.09 yuan, while those in Zhejiang Feida Environmental Science & Technology Co., Ltd. also rose by 10 percent to 11.64 yuan.

Editor: Liu