(Yicai Global) Dec. 9 -- Stock markets on China's mainland were mostly lower at midday today as selling pressure emerged after the latest CPI data sounded the alarm among investors as to the potential for a price deflation.

The Shanghai Composite Index barely clung to positive ground at the lunch break, up a mere 0.06 percent at 3,412.19. Its Nasdaq-like Star Market Board 50 Index, or Star 50, tallied a 1.20 percent loss at 1,381.97

China's consumer prices blindsided analysts by falling last month for the first time since October 2009 as pork prices finally stopped their wild surges.

The Shenzhen Component Index was down 0.51 percent at 13,903.15, while the ChiNext Price Index, which tracks growth enterprises listed in Shenzhen, subsided to 2,737.49, down 0.32 percent.

The Consumer Price Index, China's main inflation gauge, was down 0. 5 percent in November from the year before, according to data that the National Bureau of Statistics published today. The benchmark logged a 0.5 percent rise in October.

Editor: Ben Armour