Shares of major Chinese lenders China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China fell to multi-month lows on Tuesday, hit by potentially souring loans, an economic slowdown and tighter capital requirements.

CCB is China's largest mortgage lender at a time when the government is taking increasingly heavy-handed measures to cool real estate prices, prompting Standard & Poor's to lower its outlook on the country's property sector to negative.

AgBank is the biggest lender to rural causes and has the highest non-performing loan ratio and lowest capital adequacy ratio among the big four lenders, raising worries that it may need fresh capital if the government tightens capital requirements.

Further weighing on the two stocks is the impending expiry of their cornerstone investors' lock-up period, with Bank of America able to sell CCB shares from late August. The lock-up period for AgBank will begin expiring in July.

Source:

Reuters