SINGAPORE – Unease about the Chinese economy unnerved local investors and sent the market dipping into the red on Feb 8.

The concerns centred on a 0.8 per cent fall in China’s consumer price index (CPI) in January, steeper than the 0.5 per cent drop expected in a Reuters poll.

This fall is the fastest since the global financial crisis, piling pressure on the Beijing government to support a stumbling economic rebound that is roiling markets.

That helped push the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) down 0.4 per cent, or 13.24 points, to 3,142.91, with losers beating gainers 272 to 254 on trade of 1.4 billion shares worth $1.1 billion.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index took a bigger hit, sliding 1.3 per cent, but that was largely due to retail giant Alibaba missing quarterly revenue expectations.

Despite Hong Kong’s slip, Mr Kelvin Wong, Asia-Pacific senior market analyst at Oanda, noted that the Chinese and Hong Kong stock markets have rallied since China’s regulatory body introduced more forceful measures to clamp down on short-selling activities.

“The involvement of President Xi Jinping… has sent a potential signal to the markets that a stock market stabilisation fund is likely to be announced soon,” he said.

Other key indexes in the region were largely up. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 2.1 per cent on comments that its central bank was unlikely to raise interest rates aggressively.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.4 per cent and the ASX 200 in Australia added 0.3 per cent to its third-highest close on record, but Malaysian shares edged down 0.1 per cent.

Back home, CapitaLand Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust was the STI’s biggest loser, shedding 3.9 per cent to $2.70, while DFI Retail Group led the way up, climbing 3.4 per cent to US$2.10.

The three local banks were mixed. OCBC Bank ended up 0.1 per cent to $12.98, while UOB fell 0.2 per cent to $28.22 and DBS closed nearly flat at $32.46. THE BUSINESS TIMES