1st LD-Writethru: China stocks plunge on Monday

Chinese shares continued to head south on Monday after weak economic data released over the weekend, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dipping 2.67 percent to end at 3,114.80 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index lost 6.55 percent to close at 9,778.23 points. The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 7.49 percent to close at 1,906.21 points.

Despite government reassurance about continued stabilization of the market, concerns remain over lingering downward pressure in the economy.

China's value-added industrial output expanded 6.1 percent year on year in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Sunday. The growth rate was up slightly from 6 percent in July, but still fell short of market expectations.

Fixed-asset investment grew 10.9 percent year on year in the first eight months, retreating from the 11.2 percent registered in the first seven months, NBS data showed.

China will continue its loose monetary policies while improving performance in infrastructure and property to help boost the economy, said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC.

On Friday, China's securities watchdog, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), announced punishments for five brokers for illegal operations. The watchdog will confiscate their illegal profits and fine them.

The benchmark Shanghai Index shed 12.49 percent in August alone, and the market rout since June has already wiped out all of this year's gains, according to a recent report by the fund rating agency Lipper.

Total turnover on the two bourses was 681.06 billion yuan (106.93 billion U.S. dollars) on Monday, up from 516.1 billion yuan on the previous trading day. Losers outnumbered winners 843 to 73 in Shanghai, and by 1,367 to 26 in Shenzhen. More than 1,400 shares fell by the daily limit of 10 percent.

Despite the latest reform moves by the central authority to invigorate state firms, shares related to state-owned enterprises (SOEs) still suffered heavy losses.

The Chinese government will modernize SOEs, enhance state assets management, promote mixed ownership and prevent the erosion of state assets, according to the guideline released on Sunday by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council,

The authorities have been promoting mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among SOEs. China's two major bullet train makers completed consolidation in the first half of the year, while China Railway Corporation announced an asset reorganization plan with one of its subsidiaries on Sunday. Endi