1st LD-Writethru: Chinese stocks plunge Wednesday despite strong trade data

Chinese stocks suffered a deep dive despite stronger-than-expected trade data on Wednesday, breaching the 3,000-point psychological barrier.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.42 percent to close at 2,949.6 points. The smaller Shenzhen index plunged 3.06 percent to close at 9,978.82 points.

The ChiNext Index, the NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, dived 4.09 percent to close at 2,059.78 points, erasing its handsome gains on Tuesday.

Total turnover on the two bourses stood at 518.9 billion yuan (79.1 billion U.S. dollars).

Losers outnumbered gainers by 919 to 58 in Shanghai and 1,432 to 124 in Shenzhen.

The Shanghai index opened higher and modestly advanced in the morning session, cheered up by a freshly released trade data which indicated a better-than-expected trade performance in December.

According to the General Administration of Customs data, China's foreign trade surplus swelled to 3.69 trillion yuan (562 billion U.S. dollars) in 2015, an increase of 56.7 percent from a year earlier.

The momentum did not last long before receding to negative territory after lunch, with an accelerated loss near closing.

Sub-indexes related to ship-building, oil and textiles witnessed the most striking losses among all sectors.

PetroChina Company Limited, China's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, declined by 1.93 percent to close at 7.61 yuan.

The announcement of the opening of the Shanghai Disney Resort on June 16 boosted stocks related to its major shareholders and local hotels at the start of the trade.

Shanghai Jinjiang International Hotels Development, which has several businesses around the resort, gained 2.01 percent at 37.64 yuan on Wednesday, resisting heavy downward pressure. Endit