An investor looks at an electronic stock indicator of a securities firm in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Feb. 15, 2016. China's stocks closed lower on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.63 percent, to close at 2,746.2 points. The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.05 percent lower at 9,668.84 points. (Photo: Xinhua/Su Yang)
Chinese shares closed on a weak note on the first trading day of the Year of the Monkey, still paring their losses from a brutal opening amid global doldrums.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.63 percent to close at 2,746.2 points while the smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.05 percent lower at 9,668.84 points.
The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, edged up 0.95 percent to close at 2,116.84 points.
Total turnover on the two bourses waned, standing at 328.99 billion yuan (50.52 billion U.S. dollars).
Financial heavyweights resumed their role as one of the worst performers, dragging down the broader indices.
CITIC Securities, China's largest brokerage, declined 1.41 percent and closed at 13.98 yuan.
Chinese shares dived at opening on fragile market sentiment, taking their cues from the sweeping losses across the global capital market last week, when China took a break for a public holiday.
The market soon stepped out of the gloom and trimmed some of its losses, as the benchmark Shanghai Composite index edged up beyond the 2,700 marks during the morning session, before finally eking out a slight loss at closing.
The modest recovery from the dive at opening in Chinese shares was also accompanied by a rally across the Asian stocks market. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average closed over 7 percent higher on Monday after falling more than 10 percent last week.
A new set of weak trading data also added to the pressure on Monday.
China's exports dropped 6.6 percent year on year to 1.14 trillion yuan (175 billion U.S. dollars) in January while imports declined 14.4 percent to 737.5 billion yuan, customs data showed on Monday.
Predicting that external conditions will continue to be tough, HSBC called for policy stimulus directed at boosting domestic demand including more aggressive monetary and fiscal easing, moves it said would help stabilize growth and expectations in the coming months.
