Shares end lower over US Fed rate cut 
2019-08-02
China stocks extended their losses yesterday, partly due to a slump in US shares after the US Federal Reserve announced its first rate cut in over a decade.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.81 percent to 2,908.77 points.
The smaller Shenzhen Component Index also dropped 0.63 percent to 9,268.05 points and the blue-chip CSI300 index closed 0.83 percent lower at 3,802.47 points.
Turnover on the two major bourses added up to 373.99 billion yuan (US$54.2 billion), up from the previous session’s 357.61 billion yuan.
On Wednesday, the Fed lowered interest rates by 0.25 percent, the first cut since the Great Recession in 2008. 
The US stock market tumbled as Fed chairman Jerome Powell said it did not mean policymakers will follow up with an aggressive rate-reducing regime.
Meanwhile, China’s official manufacturing PMI was 49.7 in July, the third consecutive month in contraction territory.
Precious metal shares led the decline. Shandong Humon Smelting fell 7.4 percent while Yintai Resources, YanTai Yuancheng Gold and Hunan Gold Corp all dropped by over 6 percent.
The household appliances sector was also weak, with Qijing Machinery, Aucma and Zhejiang Kangsheng all sliding by over 4 percent.
Office supplies, the aviation sector and real-estate firms were among the big decliners. 
