SHANGHAI: China stocks fell for a fifth straight session on Monday, with investors hoping for more policy stimulus from upcoming government meetings amid a weak economic recovery, rising geopolitical tensions and increasing foreign outflows.

At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.53% at 2,934.23.

Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong fell 1.3% to 6,299.23, while the Hang Seng Index was down 1.34% at 17,561.39.

Investors are awaiting the Third Plenum this month, which will focus on policies on further deepening reforms and promoting the modernisation of China.

China's services activity expanded at the slowest pace in eight months and confidence hit a four-year low in June, a private-sector survey showed last week.

China announced the next step in its anti-dumping investigation into European brandy imports on Friday, ramping up tension on the day the European Commission's provisional tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles take effect.

The weak performance comes even after China's securities regulator vowed on Friday to clamp down harder on financial fraud, saying it is pushing for harsher punishment against lawbreakers as it seeks to revive confidence in the country's struggling stock markets.

Foreign investors sold a net 13.9 billion yuan ($1.91 billion) of Chinese shares so far this month, after offloading 44.5 billion yuan ($6.12 billion) in June.

China's blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.43%, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 0.28%, the consumer staples sector down 1.32%, the real estate index down 2.69% and the healthcare sub-index down 1.67%.

The smaller Shenzhen index was down 1.21%, the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.91% and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR50 index was down 0.25%​.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.22% while Japan's Nikkei index was up 0.17%.

 - Reuters