China stocks slip as property giants tally losses

(Updates prices)

SINGAPORE, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Chinese shares fell in heavy trade on Monday, with consumer and property companies suffering the most significant losses, driven by economic data and doubts over a report suggesting China may ease mortgage refinancing.

** The Shanghai Composite index closed down 1.1% at 2,811.04 points.

** China's blue-chip CSI300 index finished 1.7% lower and the real estate index fell 4.1%. The consumer staples sector fell 3.1% and the food and beverage index dropped 3.5%.

** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong closed 1.9% lower at 6,211.61, while the Hang Seng Index ended down 1.7% at 17,691.97.

** A private survey showed that China's new home prices barely rose in August, while developers China Vanke and Hong Kong's New World Development reported losses.

** New World Development shares suffered the largest fall on the Hang Seng, slumping 13% to a two-decade low after the company estimated a net loss as deep as HK$20 billion ($2.6 billion) for the year ended June 30.

** China Vanke shares fell 5% after the state-backed property giant reported a core loss of 7.6 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in the first half on Friday, underscoring the depth of the malaise in the sector.

** Analysts also assessed the effect of potential loosening of mortgage refinancing rules which were reported by Bloomberg News on Friday.

** "Refinancing with different banks is unlikely to be allowed," Nomura economist Ting Lu said, though he nevertheless expects cuts to mortgage rates that could save borrowers about 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) a year in repayments.

** The top three H-share losers were bottled water seller Nongfu Spring , down 5.5%, China Resources Land

, down 5.4%, and China Overseas Land & Investment

, down 4.7%.

** Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing PMI swung back to growth in August, data showed on Monday. Still, a survey of larger companies on Saturday showed activity contracted for a fourth month.

** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index

lost 0.33%, while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.14%.

** About 34.07 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, approximately 123% of the market's 30-day moving average. About 3.08 billion Hang Seng index shares were traded, roughly 128% of the market's 30-day moving average.

($1 = 7.1009 Chinese yuan) ($1 = 7.7964 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Jacqueline Wong)

((tom.westbrook@tr.com; +65 6973 8284;))