1st Ld-Writethru: Chinese shares close lower Tuesday

Chinese stocks closed lower on Tuesday as capital in the market remained tight.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.25 percent, at 3,114.66 points. The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.03 percent lower at 10,230.57 points.

Turnover on the two exchanges stood at 362.94 billion yuan (about 52.6 billion U.S. dollars).

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, retreated 0.27 percent to close at 1,968.62 points.

Profits of China's major industrial firms increased 14.5 percent year on year in November, up from 9.8 percent registered in October, official data showed Tuesday.

NBS statistician He Ping said the sharp growth in November was a result of acceleration in the growth of both industrial production and sales, a significant rise in producer prices and the strong performance of electronics, special equipment manufacturing and oil refining sectors.

Stock indices were lifted by heavyweights related to state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms. Shanghai Pudong Road & Bridge Construction Co. Ltd. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 12.87 yuan. Shanghai Material Trading Co. Ltd. gained 4.21 percent to 19.04 yuan.

Bucking the trend, Avic Aircraft Co. Ltd. dropped 2 percent to 21.12 yuan. China CSSC Holdings Limited lost 1.9 percent to 29.4 yuan.

Despite the strong impetus injected by SOE shares, the shrinking trading volume and weak performance of the Shenzhen market indicate a strong rebound is unlikely in the short term, analysts have said. Endi