The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.1% to 2349.59 as investors considered the implications of China's consumer price index for January, up 4.5% from a year earlier, well above economists' median forecast for a 4.1% rise.
Stock markets sold off, a Credit Suisse report concluded that the commodity super-cycle underpinned by China has drawn to a close, and economists worried about the implications for the already slow economic recovery in the United States.