SHANGHAI: China stocks wavered with no clear direction on Monday, as losses in tech shares amid Beijing’s deepening anti-monopoly war offset gains in energy and healthcare companies.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.1 per cent to 4,992.42, but the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3 per cent to 3,427.99 points.
China’s Nasdaq-style STAR market dropped 0.8 per cent, while an index tracking the IT sector fell 0.5 per cent, after the internet watchdog on Saturday announced a ban on some mobile app notifications, as regulators ramp up a campaign to rein in internet firms’ growing influence.
“China’s anti-monopoly campaign hit investor confidence in tech shares,” said Yang Hongxun, analyst at Shandong Shenguang Consulting.
But healthcare stocks soared, rebounding from last week’s drubbing after a U.S. proposal to waive patents for Covid-19 vaccines met with fierce opposition from European governments and pharmaceutical giants.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical jumped 10 per cent, the maximum allowed, in Shanghai, after the drugmaker said a subsidiary had agreed to provide a factory to make the Covid-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech in China.
Energy shares also rose sharply, after a cyber attack shut down a U.S. pipeline operator that provides nearly half of the U.S. east coast’s fuel supply, boosting oil and gas futures.
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