China equity funds gain 72% in first seven months

China equity funds posted an average gain of 14.07% in July, bringing the returns in the first seven months of the year to 72.42%, according to data provider Lipper. All this is before the sell-off in August, however. China's closely watched CSI 300 Index, which tracks the 300 most representative A-share stocks listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, was up 4.3% yesterday, but is still 17% off its recent peak on August 3. The sharp fall in the Chinese stock market in pre…