China's shares closed 1.42 percent lower on Monday at their lowest level in three weeks as some institutional investors cashed out of their holdings to beef up year-end balance sheets. The benchmark Shanghai composite index, which groups foreign currency B shares and local currency A shares, closed at 1,337.434 points.
Shanghai Bailian Group Co Ltd, China's top retailer, was one of the day's most active stocks, falling 2.5 percent to close at 7.42 yuan.
Bailian had plunged 18 percent on Friday when it debuted following a merger of formerly listed Shanghai Number One Department Store and Hualian.
Number One and Hualian had been suspended since April and since then Chinese stocks have lost nearly a quarter of their value, battered mainly by official economic-cooling steps.
Bellwether China United Telecommunications Corp, the smaller of the country's two wireless operators, was the day's most active counter.
Its yuan-dominated A shares, open to qualified foreign investors, ended down 1.3 percent at 3.04 yuan.
"Institutional investors are under increasing pressure to draw back cash as the year draws to a close," said Lu Wei, a trader at East Asia Securities.
Steel counters bucked the trend amid concerns over possible supply shortages after Japan's second-biggest auto maker said last week it would suspend some of its operations for five days.
Top steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd rose 0.67 percent to 6.00 yuan, while Wuhan Steel Processing Co Ltd, China's third-largest steel maker, gained 0.57 percent to 3.54 yuan.
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