China stocks little changed, developers offset…

SHANGHAI, March 30 (Reuters) – China stocks barely moved on Friday as gains in healthcare stocks were offset by losses in developers and banking shares. ** At 04:03 GMT, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.12 percent at 3,164.22, while China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was flat at 3,894.15, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 0.97 percent, the consumer staples sector up 0.2 percent, the real-estate index down 1.65 percent and healthcare sub-index up 2.27 percent. ** The smaller Shenzhen index was up 0.91 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 1.79 percent. ** Hong Kong’s financial markets are closed for the Easter holiday.

** Financial shares on the mainland dropped 1 percent by the lunch break, after China’s new banking and insurance regulator said on Thursday it will deepen the reform and opening up of the banking and insurance systems and will crack down on financial risk.

** Around the region, MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.32 percent while Japan’s Nikkei index was up 1.09 percent. ** The yuan was quoted at 6.2695 per U.S. dollar, 0.31 percent firmer than the previous close of 6.289. ** The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Aisino Corp up 10 percent, followed by Grinm Advanced Materials Co Ltd gaining 9.8 percent and Avicopter Plc up by 7.8 percent. ** The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Jinyu Bio-Technology Co Ltd down 4.84 percent, followed by Winsan Shanghai Medical Science and Technology Co Ltd losing 4.84 percent and Sinopec Oilfield Service Corp down 4.23 percent. ** About 8.39 billion shares were traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 50.3 percent of the market’s 30-day daily moving average of 16.70 billion shares. The volume traded was 17.03 billion as of the last full trading day. ** The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average and below its 200-day moving average. ** The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 14.16 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.1 percent.

(Reporting by Luoyan Liu and John Ruwitch; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)