Weak lending data hits Chinese stocks, but tech rallies

Shanghai: China stocks closed lower on Wednesday as investor sentiment was undermined by concerns over weakening economic growth, but losses were kept in check by solid gains for tech shares.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.1 per cent, to 3,701.42, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1 per cent, to 3,246.62 points.
China CSI300 stock index futures for August rose 0.1 per cent, to 3,690.8, 10.77 points below the current value of the underlying index.
China's new loans in July fell to their lowest in 8 months, reinforcing views economic activity will slow in the second half.
But with broad consensus pointing to a gradual slowdown in the economy, and not a sharp deceleration, some market watchers said concerns over cooling growth had not led to heavy selling pressure.
"The data that shows slowing is related to the results of government macro policies, but this doesn't translate into pessimism," said Bo Huang, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities in Hong Kong.
There was little pessimism around technology companies, which had helped to power the CSI300 to a 1.3-per cent gain on Monday. The nine best-performing components of the CSI300 index were all technology firms.
The tech-heavy ChiNext board gained 1.5 per cent for the day.
Wangsu Science & Technology Co., which provides content delivery and internet data centre services, gained 6.8 per cent. Voice recognition software firm iFlytek Co came within 0.44 yuan of its record high in May 2015 before giving up some ground to close up 5.8 per cent.
Despite the tech gains, materials and healthcare firms weighed on the index.
Shandong Gold Mining lost 2.0 per cent and Zijin Mining Group lost 1.6 per cent.