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1st LD-Writethru: Financial bluechips weigh down Chinese shares

Xinhua, December 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

China's equities closed mixed on Tuesday with financial heavyweights dragging down the key Shanghai index as investors become jittery over the prospect of a possible interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Fed is scheduled to hold a two-day policy meeting on Wednesday and the market widely expects the Fed to raise the key interest rate, which could have a significant bearing on emerging economies.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.29 percent, or 10.31 points, to close at 3,510.35 points. The Hushen 300 index, tracking heavyweight stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen, lost 0.46 percent to close at 3,694.39 points.

The smaller Shenzhen index rose 0.76 percent to close at 12,495.25 points. The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 1.34 percent to close at 2,745.7 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses stood at 714.6 billion yuan (110.7 billion U.S. dollars), up from 672.3 billion yuan from the previous trading day.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 596 to 354 in Shanghai and 1,148 to 366 in Shenzhen.

The financial sub-index, which covers 51 securities firms, major banks and insurers, tumbled 1.94 percent. Forty-six financial firms fell and securities firms, which surged on Monday, suffered the most.

A total of 13 securities firms shed more than 3 percent. Changjiang Securities and Guoyuan Securities lost nearly 4 percent. CITIC Securities, China's largest brokerage firm, fell 3.75 percent.

Major banks also fell in the day. Bank of China fell 1.46 percent to 4.04 yuan. China Construction Bank lost more than 1 percent to 5.74 yuan per share.

Small-cap stocks were major gainers in the day. Nearly 70 stocks on the two exchanges jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent, with shares related to cyber security, property, telecommunication, software among the biggest winners. Endi