China stocks sink on e-credit card halt

Chinese shares plunged on Friday as the central bank halted payments and use of virtual credit cards. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went down 0.73 percent, or 14.77 points, to finish at 2,004.34. The Shenzhen Component Index lost 1.10 percent, or 80.22 points, to close at 7,239.06. Combined turnover on the two bourses shrank to 161.18 billion yuan (26.42 billion U.S. dollars) from 173.61 billion yuan the previous trading day. The People's Bank of China (PBoC), the central bank, has suspended the use of online credit cards and payments via code scanning over security concerns, an official told Xinhua. Zhou Jinhuang, vice director of the PBoC's payment and settlement department, said the central bank has issued a notice to suspend Tencent and Alipay's online credit cards, also known as virtual credit cards, and payments through bar code scans. China CITIC Bank announced on Tuesday it will partner with Tencent and Alipay under Alibaba to issue online credit cards based on code scanning payments. CITIC slumped 8.26 percent to 4.89 yuan per share on Friday. The financial sector shrank 0.51 percent on Friday. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China's biggest listed lender, lost 0.92 percent to 3.24 yuan per share. China's factory output also weighed on the market. The country's industrial output expanded 8.6 percent year on year in the first two months of 2014, missing market estimates, according to official data on Thursday. The environmental protection sector slumped the most by 1.98 percent on Friday. Beijing Capital Co., Ltd., a sewage treatment company, dropped 1.51 percent to 6.51 yuan per share.