![Chinese stocks](http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/55a60b0feab8ea0817a53fa8-720-540/chinese-stocks.jpg)
Fresh from being slammed by more than 4% on Friday, a sell-off which took weekly losses to more than 10%, Chinese stocks have been hammered in early trade on Monday.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite index is down 3.83%, taking its losses from the multi-year peak of 5178.2 hit on June 12 to 34.85%.
It is now trading at the lowest level since mid-March although, adding some perspective, the index has still rallied 50% over the past 12 months despite the recent falls.
![shanghai composite index](http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55da65f39dd7cc18008b54ee-958-643/ssec-aug-21.jpg)
The carnage in Shanghai is being replicated in other mainland Chinese indices.
The CSI 300 and 500 indices, comprising of the 300 and 500-largest firms by market capitalisation in Shanghai and Shenzhen, are lower by 3.76% and 4.70% respectively.
The losses come despite news over the weekend that China’s giant pension fund will now be allowed to invest as much as one trillion yuan in domestic stocks – the latest in a long line of attempts from the government to address the slide in Chinese markets.
Earlier in the session the PBOC fixed the USD/CNY rate at 6.3862, down slightly on the 6.389 closing level seen on Friday.
As reported by Business Insider