1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares close lower Wednesday

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed lower on Wednesday, led by declines in the foreign trade sector.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went down 1.40 percent to close at 3,122.29 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.35 percent lower at 10,630.69 points.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.52 percent to close at 1,835.15 points.

Combined turnover on the two bourses stood at 499.8 billion yuan (79.6billion U.S. dollars), down from 540.4 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbered gainers 921 to 365 in Shanghai and 1,151 to 711 in Shenzhen.

Stocks related to foreign trade dropped following the U.S. government's latest tariff plan on imports from China.

Jiangsu Guotai International Group Guomao shed 3.27 percent to close at 7.7 yuan per share and China National Complete Plant Import and Export dived 9.37 percent to close at 17.9 yuan.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He has called for rationality and joint efforts by China and the United States to safeguard the stability of China-U.S. trade relations.

Liu said the recent U.S. release of a Section 301 investigation report ran counter to global trade rules and was detrimental to the interests of China, the United States and the whole world.

"China is ready and has the strength to safeguard its national interests," he said. Enditem