Chinese share down more than 1% at midday

BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Chinese media) -- Weak sentiment continued to loom over the

Chinese market and drove equity prices lower on Monday following a record weekly

loss of 8.27 percent last week.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 20.55 points, or 1.11 percent,

to 1,830.97 points in the morning session, led by heavyweights.

PetroChina, the country's leading oil producer, retreated 1.37 percent to

10.05 yuan. China Vanke, the country's largest real estate developer, tumbled

2.76 percent to 6.35 yuan.

Shenzhen Component Index on the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange slid 149.81

points, or 2.23 percent to 6,554.44.

Combined turnover was 30.4 (4.44 billion U.S. dollars), slightly higher

than 28.26 billion yuan in the morning session of the previous trading day.

Most stocks went down in the morning trade. Losses outnumbered gains by 643

to 183 in Shanghai, and more drastically by 640 to 89 in

Shenzhen.