Shares of the financially troubled Chinese developer "Evergrande" plummeted by 80%.

The first day of trading in Hong Kong for over a year and a half saw almost an 80% decline in shares of the troubled Chinese real estate developer Evergrande.

As a result of Beijing's crackdown on real estate companies, the shares have lost more than 99% of their value over the previous three years.

The second-largest economy in the world is threatened by the real estate market crisis that has Evergrande at its hub.

The company reported a 33 billion yuan ($4.5 billion; £3.6 billion) loss for the first half of the year on Sunday.

That was better than the loss of 66.4 billion yuan it posted for the same period last year, though.

The company also stated that its sales for the first half of this year increased by 44% to 128.2 billion yuan over the same period last year. But throughout that time, its cash reserve shrank by 6.3%.

Trading in Evergrande shares had been halted since March of last year.

In order to minimise financial contagion and reduce spillover into the wider financial system, governments must act now, according to Qian Wang, chief Asia Pacific economist at investment company Vanguard, told the BBC.

Concerns regarding the post-pandemic recovery of the second-largest economy in the world have increased as a result of issues in China's real estate market.

Additionally, on Monday, China reduced its 0.1% stock trading fee by half in an effort to "enliven the capital market and raise investor confidence."

The action was taken a few days after the nation's central bank, in response to poor consumer spending and declining exports, lowered one of its major interest rates for the second time in three months.

Following the announcement, the key stock indices in Hong Kong and mainland China increased.

Evergrande said this month that it lost a total of 581.9 billion yuan in 2021 and 2022.

One of China's largest real estate developers, Country Garden, issued a warning earlier this month that the first half of the year might result in a loss of up to $7.6 billion (£6 billion).

When new regulations to limit the amount of money large real estate corporations might borrow were announced in 2020, the Chinese real estate market was shaken.

Evergrande, previously the top-selling developer in China, had amassed debts of more than $300 billion as it rapidly expanded to become one of the greatest businesses in the nation.

Due to Evergrande's financial issues, a number of other developers have fallen behind on payments and abandoned incomplete construction projects all around the nation.

(Sources: bbc.co.uk)