Worst start ever

Shanghai Stock Exchange started the new trading year with worst performance in its history. For the first few hours after its opening, the main stock index CSI 300 plunged by 7.02%.

The worst-ever start to a year for Chinese shares triggered a trading halt in more than $7 trillion of equities, futures and options, putting the nation’s new market circuit breakers to the test on their first day.

Trading was halted at about 1:34 p.m. localtime on Monday after the CSI 300 Index dropped 7 percent. An earlier 15-minutesuspension at the 5 percent level failed to stop the retreat, with sharesextending losses as soon as the market re-opened. Traders said the halts tookeffect as anticipated without any major technical problems.

The world’s second-largest stock market began the year on a down note after data showed manufacturing contracted for a fifth straight month and investors speculated that the end of a ban on share sales by major stakeholders may come as soon as this week. Chinese policy makers, who went to unprecedented lengths to prop up stock prices during a summer rout, are trying to prevent financial-market volatility from weighing on economy set to grow at its weakest annual pace since 1990.

"This is a pretty dramatic start of trading for the year,” said Khiem Do, the Hong Kong-based head of multi-asset strategy at Baring Asset Management, which manages about $45 billion. “Some investors may have been unwinding their positions when trading volumes were light. That could have exaggerated the moves. The market has been very difficult to predict.”

Monday’s selloff rippled through regional equity markets, with Asian shares and U.S. equity-index futures extending losses. Chinese stocks’ influence on global markets has increased after the nation’s $5 trillion equity market rout, when the Shanghai gauge tumbled more than 40 percent from mid-June through its August low, rattled investor confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.

Brokerages were prepared for the circuit breakers after conducting tests on the new mechanism last month, according to William Wong, the head of sales trading at Shenwan Hongyuan Group Co. in Hong Kong. About 595 billion yuan ($89.9 billion) of shares changed hands on mainland exchanges before the suspension, versus a full-day average of about 1 trillion yuan over the past year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Under the circuit breaker rules finalized last month, a move of 5 percent in the CSI 300 triggers a 15-minute halt for stocks, options and index futures, while a move of 7 percent closes the market for the rest of the day. The CSI 300, comprised of large-capitalization companies listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, fell as much as 7.02 percent before trading was suspended. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 6.9 percent.

Individual investors in China, who drive morethan 80 percent of trading, may have rushed to sell after the first circuitbreaker took effect to avoid getting stuck in positions by the 7 percentsuspension, according to Andrew Sullivan, managing director for sales tradingat Haitong International Securities Group in Hong Kong. It took just sevenminutes for the second halt to come into effect as shares tumbled after thefirst suspension ended, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.