Chinese stocks have set a poor tone for the start of another trading week, with a sell-off in stocks gathering pace into the close of trade.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite finished the day down 5.3%, having been down only about 3% for most of Monday’s session.
The CSI 300, a combination of the 300 biggest companies on the Shanghai and Shenzen markets, was also down just over 5% for the day.
Its broader related index, the CSI 500, was down 6.7%. If the circuit-breaker rules designed to contain market panic had not been ditched last week by Beijing authorities, trade would have been at least temporarily halted on Monday's sell-offs.
The falls came after China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, surprised markets by announcing a yuan fixing that was stronger than expected, setting the dollar-yuan rate at 6.5626.
The figure was below Friday's fixing of 6.5636 and the final traded price of 6.5938 seen Friday evening.
A lower number indicates that the yuan has strengthened against the US dollar.
In initial trades the fixing rose to as high as Friday's closing level before reversing sharply, indicating that the government — through its network of state-owned banks — may be intervening in the market to support the currency.
The daily chart of the dollar versus the CNH — offshore traded yuan — reveals how the recent sell-off in the currency has stalled in recent sessions.
USDCNH Jan 11.
Here's the Asia market scoreboard after the China close. Note that Japanese markets were closed for the Coming of Age holiday.

Stocks

Stocks
  • ASX 200 4932.24 , -58.60 , -1.17%
  • Nikkei 225 17697.96 , -69.38 , -0.39%
  • Shanghai Composite 3018.00 , -168.42 , -5.29%
  • Hang Seng 19983.39 , -470.32 , -2.30%
  • KOSPI 1894.84 , -22.78 , -1.19%
  • Straits Times 2696.52 , -54.71 , -1.99%
  • S&P 500 Futures 1909.00 , -2.50 , -0.13%
Forex
  • USD/JPY 117.19 , -0.25 , -0.21%
  • USD/CNY 6.5832 , -0.0100 , -0.15%
  • AUD/USD 0.6973 , 0.0022 , 0.32%
  • NZD/USD 0.6538 , 0.0000 , 0.00%
  • AUD/JPY 81.72 , 0.11 , 0.13%
  • EUR/USD 1.0912 , -0.0017 , -0.16%
  • GBP/USD 1.4530 , 0.0013 , 0.09%
  • USD INDEX 98.410 , -0.1300 , -0.13%
Commodities
  • Gold $1,105.20 , $1.36 , 0.12%
  • Silver $13.99 , $0.06 , 0.41%
  • WTI Futures $32.36 , -$0.80 , -2.41%
  • Copper Futures ¥35,010 , -¥930 -2.59%
  • Iron Ore Futures ¥305.50 , -¥8.00 , -2.55%
10-Year Bond Yields
  • Australia 2.761%
  • New Zealand 3.390%
  • Japan 0.222%
  • Germany 0.521%
  • UK 1.763%
  • US 2.116%
Read the original article on Business Insider Australia. Copyright 2016.

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