China shares fall for 3rd day on economic concerns

Chinese shares fell for a third day as the worries over the country's economic growth lingered, but ended the week up by 1.6 percent.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 13.93 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 2,552.82. The Shenzhen Composite Index for China's smaller second exchange lost 1.8 percent to 1,028.61.

Fears of slowing economic growth capped trading volume as European debt woes widened, analysts said.

"The economic uncertainty might last for a long time, because it is hard to tell if China's trade is already back on a track of recovery given what is happening in Europe," said Zhang Xiang, an analyst for Guodu Securities in Beijing.

Most investors were taking a wait-and-see position ahead of the mammoth initial public offering of the state-owned Agricultural Bank, Zhang said. Possibly the world's biggest IPO, the bank is expected to raise more than $20 billion.

Resources and construction-related shares, industries that closely linked to economic cycles, declined again.

PetroChina Ltd., Asia's biggest oil and gas producer, slipped 0.5 percent to 10.71 yuan, while China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., known as Sinopec, shed 0.4 percent to 8.34 yuan.

Tangshan Jidong Cement Co. and China Railway Construction Corp. both gave up 1.2 percent -- Jidong to 15.93 yuan, and China Railway to 7.33 yuan.

Brokerages fell on low stock trading volume. CITIC Securities Co., China's biggest brokerage by market value, declined by 3.1 percent to 13.2 yuan, while Haitong Securities ended down by 1.8 percent to 10.32 yuan.

In currency markets, the yuan strengthened to 6.7935 to the U.S. dollar from Thursday's close of 6.8113.

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Associated Press researcher Bonnie Cao in Beijing contributed to this report.