Disappointing results for Q3 weigh on stock markets

Stocks in the Chinese mainland ended October with a fall on Thursday, partly due to disappointing third-quarter financial results.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell by 18.85 points or 0.87 percent to close at 2,141.61 points, ending the month down 1.5 percent from the first trading day of the month, October 8. It was the first monthly decline since June.

The Shenzhen Component Index also fell by 108.96 points or 1.27 percent to 8,444.41 points, marking a 0.82 percent monthly decline.

Combined turnover on the two bourses on Thursday was 185.1 billion yuan ($30.37 billion), a further slide from Wednesday's 194.8 billion yuan.

Disappointing third-quarter results pushed the decline.

Shares in Suning Commerce Group Co slid by the daily limit of 10 percent on Thursday after the company posted a quarterly loss for the first time in six years. The third-quarter net loss amounted to 108.3 million yuan.

Leading dairy firm Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group also saw its shares fall by 10 percent to 41.13 yuan, and Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharmaceutical Holdings Co also fell by 10 percent to 30.82 yuan.

Shares in China Minsheng Banking Co fell by 2.40 percent to 8.96 yuan after the lender issued results below market expectations Wednesday.

Meanwhile, after President Xi Jinping stressed on Tuesday the need to increase housing supply, shares in the property sector rose, with Macrolink Real Estate Co jumping by the 10 percent daily limit to 5.17 yuan on Thursday. The overall property sector increased by 0.61 percent.

ChiNext, China's NASDAQ-style board for high-tech and fast-growing start-ups listed in Shenzhen, declined by 2.96 percent on Thursday to close at 1,235.56 points. The index had fallen by 9.68 percent since October 8.