10.03.201407:11:06UTC+00Shanghai and Hong Kong markets hit by China data

Chinese investors are responding with apparent shock to much-weaker-than-assumed export data, with both Shanghai and Hong Kong stocks indexes pulling back 1.5%.

Over the weekend, China declared that its exports in February plummeted 18.1% year-on-year, following a 10.6% increase in January.

Although many analysts attributed the surprising weakness to the Lunar New Year Holiday effect and the unwinding of hot-money trades due to the latest downgrade of the yuan, the data sparked jitters that are hitting stocks hard.

Hong Kong markets saw a sell off across the broad, with most mainland Chinese banks relinquishing more than 1%. China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank, among others, relinquished more than 1.5%.

Airlines and insurers sagged down after the mysterious disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight Friday from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. China Southern Airlines backslide 3.1%, and Air China gave up 2.4%. Ping An Insurance also dropped 2.2%.

The world’s biggest wireless carrier, China Mobile, slumped 2.3% after the company’s chairman declared in a meeting of China’s top political advisory body that the telecom plans to trim the financial worth for its 4G service, as the Chinese public complained the charges were too high.