China stocks slump over liquidity shortage concerns

Chinese shares slumped more than 2 percent on Friday, as concerns over tight liquidity persist despite intervention from the central bank.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 2.02 percent, or 43 points, to finish at 2,084.79. The Shenzhen Component Index fell 2.22 percent, or 180.99 points, to finish at 7,966.72.

Total turnover on Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses rose to 153.55 billion yuan (25.09 billion U.S. dollars) from 140.06 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

The central bank announced late Thursday that it had injected liquidity into the market via short-term operations "recently" because of growing concerns of tight money supply toward the end of the year.

Despite the action, the interbank bond repurchase rates climbed on Friday with the rate for one-day products rising 12 basis points to 3.95 percent, and the seven-day rate increasing 100 basis points to 7.6 percent.

The Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which shows the cost of interbank borrowing, also gained, with the overnight Shibor rising 8.1 basis points to 3.93 percent. Seven day and two week rates both increased sharply to 7.65 percent and 7 percent respectively.

The suspension of reverse repurchase operations by the central bank has also added to worries of a possible liquidity crunch as seen in June. The weak performance of the markets was also a response to the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to start tapering its quantitative easing by reducing its asset-purchasing program from 85 billion dollars to 75 billion dollars beginning from January.

The China CITIC bank slumped 8.67 percent to 3.58 yuan per share. China Construction Bank fell 6.16 percent to 3.96 yuan, while the Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-earth Hi-tech Co., Ltd. dived 9.49 percent to 21.74 yuan.