Tokyo | China’s central bank left a key mortgage rate unchanged on Monday, shattering expectations that Beijing would be more aggressive on monetary loosening to stave off a full-blown crisis in its troubled property market while stoking consumer demand and business investors.

Chinese stocks fell after the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) cut its one-year loan prime rate (LPR), which affects borrowing costs for households and businesses, by 10 basis points, less than most economists had expected.