Chinese shares closed down 1.77 percent on Monday, led by food producers over fears about the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and parts of the United States, dealers said. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers A and B shares, was down 43.25 points at 2,405.35 on turnover of 103.1 billion yuan (15.1 billion dollars). 金融英语知多少？ Pork producers led the fall on concerns about a 0drop in demand for their products because of the swine flu outbreak, traders said. "Investors are worried that pork demand will decrease sharply in China in the near term, which may eat into profits of those meat producers," TX Investment s analyst Wu Feng told Dow Jones Newswires. Hunan New Wellful fell by the 10 percent daily downside limit to 7.21 and Henan Shuanghui Investment and Development was down 2.8 percent at 35.20 yuan. Airline companies were also weak after the Chinese government urged visitors to the US and Mexico to take precautions against swine flu, dealers said. Air China fell 6.2 percent to 6.27 yuan and China Southern Airlines was down 6.1 percent at 5.66 yuan. But pharmaceutical producers bucked the downward trend on expectations swine flu will lead to an increase in medicine sales. Shanghai Pharmaceutical rose 6.6 percent to 10.40 and Shanghai Industrial Pharmaceutical Investment was up 4.5 percent at 17.48. Real estate developers tumbled on the gloomy outlook for China s property market. "There is talk that property sales in April are falling from March, which indicates there remain further slowdown risks for the Chinese economy," Wang Junqing, an analyst at Guosen Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires. China Vanke fell 1.0 percent to 8.00 and Poly Real Estate was down 3.5 percent at 22.00. The Shanghai A-share index fell 45.17 points, or 1.76 percent, to 2,524.96 on turnover of 102.8 billion yuan, while the Shenzhen A-share index shed 27.56 points, or 3.19 percent, to 836.94 on turnover of 51.9 billion yuan. The Shanghai B-share index fell 6.19 points, or 3.83 percent, to 155.31, and the Shenzhen B-share index lost 12.89 points, or 3.53 percent, to 351.78.