Shanghai's stocks closed flat yesterday amid a cautious sentiment ahead of a slew of economic data to be released on Friday.

The Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.12 percent to 2,448.88 points.

The market adopted a wait-and-see attitude before the release of the Consumer Price Index for April on Friday. Zhu Yu, economist at Goldman Sachs in Asia, predicted an annual rise in the key gauge of inflation to ease to 3.5 percent in April from 3.6 percent in March.

Banks fell on expectations that a reserve requirement cut may not be realized.

Sheng Hongqing, chief macro-economic analyst at Everbright Bank, said the 65 billion yuan (US$10.3 billion) liquidity injection via a reverse purchase by the central bank last Thursday suggested that monetary easing may be shelved.

China Merchants Bank dipped 0.4 percent to 12.37 yuan and Bank of China fell 0.3 percent to 3.07 yuan.

Brokers also fell following tough measures on fund-raising introduced by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

CITIC Securities tumbled 2 percent to 13.09 yuan and Haitong Securities shed 1.8 percent to 10.01 yuan.

China Vanke, the country's biggest developer by market value, shed 0.3 percent to finish at 9.04 yuan.