*BEIJING – China’s stock market has been overtaken as the world’ssecond-biggest by Japan’s, having been swiped this year by the threat of atrade war with the United States and slowing economic growth.*

Data from *Bloomberg News* in intra-day trade on Friday showed the value ofequities on the mainland had slipped behind those in their neighboringcountry for the first time since taking the number-two spot in 2014.

The figures showed Chinese stocks were worth $6.09 trillion, compared with$6.17 trillion in Japan.

While global markets have been broadly hit by fears of a trade war betweenthe world´s top two economies, Chinese equities are among the worstperformers this year, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumpingmore than 16 percent since the start of January.

The pressure was ratcheted up this week when the White House said it wasconsidering more than doubling threatened tariffs on a range of Chineseimports worth $200 billion.

Washington has already imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of goods and isconsidering hitting another $16 billion in the coming weeks.

“Losing the ranking to Japan is the damage caused by the trade war,” BannyLam, head of research at CEB International Investment in Hong Kong, toldBloomberg News.

“The Japan equity gauge is relatively more stable around the current levelbut China´s market cap has slumped from its peak this year.” – APP/AFP