China stocks drop, led by semiconductor shares

  China stocks declined on Tuesday, dragged down by semiconductor shares, while gaming stocks stabilised after a slew of companies announced share buyback plans. The Hong Kong market is closed for a holiday.

** China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 and the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC both dropped 0.7% by the lunch break.

** Semiconductor .CSIH30184 and information technology .CSIINT shares led the decline, both down 2.1%.

** Hangzhou Changchuan Techonology Co. 300604.SZ and Sai Microelectronics Inc. 300456.SZ lost 5.8% and 4.5%, respectively.

** At least eight China-listed gaming companies, including Perfect World Co 002624.SZ, have announced share buyback plans worth as much as 780 million yuan ($109.17 million) in total to boost investor confidence and stabilise share prices across an industry shaken by .

** Share prices of those companies mostly stabilised on Monday after sharp declines, with the CSI Anime Comic Game Index .CSI930901 still down 1.6%.

** Despite the broad weak sentiment, coal .CSI000820 and energy .CSIEN stocks edged up, as investors prefer high-dividend and low-valuation sectors.

** China's onshore shares are still searching for a bottom and may cross the inflection point around Lunar New Year, analysts at Orient Securities said in a note on Tuesday.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/china-stocks-drop-led-by-semiconductor-shares-hk-market-close