Nikkei: 8,560.26 (–180.90) Hang Seng: 17,911.95 (–912.22) Shanghai Comp: 2,443.06 (–69.21)CHINESE PROPERTY stocks suffered double-digit declines yesterday, amid growing fears that developers are losing access to funding and will be forced to slash prices.
The trigger for yesterday’s tumble was a Reuters report that the Chinese banking regulator had ordered trust companies to assess their risks from lending to Greentown, the largest builder in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
Greentown’s Hong Kong-listed shares tumbled 16.2 per cent.
Other Hong Kong-listed developers that use trust financing include Agile Property, Evergrande, KWG and Shimao. All four fell by more than 10 per cent.
BHP Billiton fell 4 per cent to A$35.63 in Sydney and Rio Tinto slid 6.5 per cent to A$65.10.
Car maker Toyota fell 1.7 per cent to ¥2,628, and Samsung was down 2.8 per cent to ¥790,000 in Seoul. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Japan’s biggest lender, lost 1.5 per cent to ¥332 and HSBC, which receives more than half its revenue from Europe, sank 3.3 per cent to HK$60.85.
Property prices have started to dip in many cities after a sharp decline in sales volumes. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011/Bloomberg)
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