Chinese shares slumped on Monday, despite an attempt to loosen financial conditions from the country's central bank over the weekend.
The People's Bank of China (PBoC) cut the reserve ratio requirement for banks, from 19.5% to 18.5%. All else being equal, that should have given a boost to China's financial system by unlocking some liquidity.
But not everything else was equal: On Friday Chinese regulators tried to crack down on certain types of margin trading, and it looks like that's still having an impact.
Here's the Shanghai Composite:
Investing.com
Though shares were up 1.5% as late as 6:15 a.m. London time (1:15 a.m. New York), they plunged late in the day to finish down 1.61%.
There was no indecisiveness for Hong Kong's Hang Seng, which had previously seen the benefit of the new link to Shanghai's stock exchange established late last year. The index slumped at the open, drifted lower and ended down 1.84%:
Investing.com