China stocks closed down on Monday as lingering concerns over the economy eclipsed weekend announcements from Beijing that reforms of bloated state-owned industries would accelerate. The day saw volumes recover after the prior week's subdued activity, but most of the transactions appeared to be on the sell side. The only bright side appeared to be index-heavyweight banking shares, which traders speculated was largely driven by state-ordered purchases intended to slow the wider market decline.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen ended down 2.0 percent, to 3,281.13, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.7 percent, to 3,114.80 points, its sharpest one-day drop since late August. Two key indexes tracking listed SOEs controlled by the central government briefly outperformed the wider market but diverged in late trade, ending down around 2.5 pct and 1.0 pct, respectively. Index futures markets all fell, with most contracts tracking the small cap CSI500 index declining by their maximum allowable 10 percent. Contracts for the CSI300 index were all down, some as much as 7 percent.