BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese equities continued their downward trend and plummeted more than 5 percent in intra-day trading Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index losing5.25 percent to 2,710.62 points by 11 a.m..

    The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,706.96 points, down 5.37 percent, or 153.73 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 10,723.41 points, down 6.35 percent, or 726.67 points.

    Zhang Yunpeng, an analyst with Beijing-based Huarong Securities, told Xinhua Monday that the fall was partly caused by the initial public offering of Metallurgical Corp. of China (MCC).

    MCC, a state-owned engineering contractor, said Monday in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that it was scheduled to issue up to 3.5 billion A-shares denominated in the Chinese yuan in early September, aiming to raise around 16.85 billion yuan (2.5billion U.S. dollars).

    Zhang said investor confidence remained weak after the Shanghai Composite Index had lost more than 17.3 percent since the beginning of this month as of Friday.

    Sinopec, the country's leading oil refiner, fell 9.46 percent to 11.2 yuan, with Petro China down 5.25 percent to 13 yuan. China Vanke, the country's largest listed real estate developer, shed 7.23 percent to 9.49 yuan.
Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis