Chinese shares book a 4th straight drop on Tue

Chinese shares maintained the dropping trend for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday with almost all stocks closing lower amid persistent concerns over interest-rate hikes and a possible economic slowdown resulting from the U.S. recession.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A shares and B shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, slumped 3.96% or 151.15 to 3,668.90 points after fluctuating between 3,862.77 and 3,607.25 points.

Similarly, the Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange plunged 5.44% or 718.76 points to 12,489.02 points, after touching an intraday low of 12,281.10 points.

The combined turnover on the two bourses expanded a bit to RMB 116.1 billion from RMB 107.6 billion of the previous trading day.

Some Blue chips lost morning gains to jointly end the day lower with the top 10 heavy weights suffering an overall loss. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China<601398><1398>, the nation's biggest lender, edged down 1.80% to RMB 5.46. Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco)<601600><2600> plunged 9.76% to RMB 22.20. PetroChina<601857><857>, which accounts for one quarter of the Shanghai market, edged down 0.57% in late session to RMB 22.48, trimming morning gains. China Life<601628><2628>, the largest insurer, dropped 5.11% to RMB 32.11.

Nonferrous metal stocks were among the biggest losers yesterday with 18 stocks dropping by the daily cap of 10%, including Yunnan Copper<000878>, China's third-largest copper producer and the second-largest producer of the metal Jiangxi Copper<600362><358>.

As a whole, losers outweighed winners by 831 to 17 in Shanghai and 659 to 10 in Shenzhen.