Chinese shares close lower Wednesday

BEIJING, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed index.html" target="_blank">index.html" target="_blank">Lower Wednesday with the electronics, agriculture and aircraft manufacturing sectors leading the losses.

The benchmark index.html" target="_blank">index.html" target="_blank">Shanghai Composite index.html" target="_blank">index dropped 0.01 percent to close at 3,090.64, while the Shenzhen Component index.html" target="_blank">index closed 0.40 percent index.html" target="_blank">index.html" target="_blank">Lower at 9,800.60.

Combined trading volume on the two index.html" target="_blank">indexes increased to 779.9 billion yuan (around 116.2 billion U.S. dollars), from 775.6 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbering gainers by 749 to 657 on the index.html" target="_blank">index.html" target="_blank">Shanghai bourse, and 1,245 to 809 in Shenzhen.

Shares in the electronics, agriculture and aircraft manufacturing sectors were sluggish. Tangrenshen Group Co. Ltd., an animal feed producer based in south China's Hunan Province, dropped 8.5 percent to 12.81 yuan per share.

Bucking the trend, stocks of the pulp and paper industry saw notable growth. For example, Mudanjiang Hengfeng Paper Co. Ltd. increased by the daily limit of 10 percent to finish at 9.54 yuan per share.

The ChiNext index.html" target="_blank">index, China's NASDAQ-style board, dropped 1.23 percent to close at 1,687.90. Enditem