MARKETS-CHINA-STOCKS-CLOSE

An investor checks his stocks' situation in the last day of the year in a brokerage house in Shanghai December 31, 2008. China's stock market ended 2008 with an annual loss of 65 percent, the biggest drop in its 18-year history, after the global economic slump burst a speculative bubble in share prices. REUTERS/Nir Elias (CHINA)