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1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares tumble on weak energy firms

Xinhua, December 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's equities tumbled on Tuesday due to losses from energy firms as global oil prices plunged to a nearly seven-year low overnight in New York.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.89 percent to close at 3,470.07 points. The smaller Shenzhen index lost 2.23 percent to close at 12,164.97 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, was down 1.7 percent to close at 2,691.66 points.

Total turnover on the two bourse stood at 788.6 billion yuan (123.1billion U.S. dollars), up from 751 billion yuan the previous day.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 801 to 154 in Shanghai and by 1146 to 381 in Shenzhen.

The petroleum sub-index, which covers 24 oil firms, dived more than 3 percent.

PetroChina, the largest component of the key Shanghai index, lost 2 percent to 8.38 yuan. Sinopec, another heavyweight, shed 2.2 percent to 4.91 yuan.

In New York, oil prices closed at a nearly seven-year low on Monday after the decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last Friday to keep crude production pumping at current level in the already oversupplied market.

The coal sub-index, which covers 41 coal producers, lost nearly 2.6 percent. Huolinhe Opencut Coal Industry Corp. and Qitaihe Baotailong Coal & Chemicals Public Co., Ltd suffered the most in the day, plunging by 6.5 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.

Other major losers were firms in sectors such as aviation device manufacturing, medical machinery, wine, power generation equipment and steel.

Financial heavyweights, which led the losses in the previous trading day, remained weak on Tuesday.

Bank of China fell 1.46 percent to 4.06 yuan. China Construction Bank (CCB) plunged more than 1 percent to 5.75 yuan per share. CITIC Securities, China's largest brokerage firm, fell 1.45 percent after losing 1.9 percent the previous trading day. Endi