1st Ld-Writethru: Chinese shares close lower Wednesday

Chinese stocks closed lower Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.40 percent, at 3,102.24 points.

The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.42 percent lower at 10,187.16 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style enterprises, lost 0.58 percent to close at 1,957.15 points.

Turnover on the two exchanges shrank to 351.5 billion yuan (about 50.6billion U.S. dollars) from 362.94 billion yuan the previous trading day.

More than 900 shares gained, with nearly 40 rising by the daily limit of 10 percent. Five stocks debuted on the two bourses, all surging by about 44 percent on their first trading day.

Most sectors retreated slightly except the construction engineering sector, which dropped by more than 1 percent. Retail, home appliance, machinery manufacturing and real estate fell, while telecom, electronics, and textiles bucked the trend, all up by less than 1 percent.

Profits of China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) rose 2.8 percent in the first 11 months of the year, compared with growth of 0.4 percent in the first 10 months, official data showed Wednesday.

Shenzhen Textile (Holdings) rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 15.15 yuan, while Shanghai Tongda Venture Capital fell 9.99 percent to 49.39 yuan.

As new year holidays are approaching, capital in the market will remain tight, which indicates a strong rebound is unlikely in the short term, analysts said. Endi