BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.41 percent to 2,978.71 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.31 percent lower at 9,642.06 points.
The combined turnover of stocks on the two exchanges stood at 423.4 billion yuan (about 60 billion U.S. dollars), shrinking from 459 billion yuan the previous trading day.
Losers outnumbered gainers by 1,064 to 356 on the Shanghai bourse and 1,477 to 620 in Shenzhen.
Storage and healthcare sectors posted strong performances, with shares of Zhuhai Winbase International Chemical Tank Terminal Co., Ltd. plunging by the daily limit of 10 percent.
Bucking the trend, shares in the sectors of liquor, free trade zone and shipping led the losses.
The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.27 percent to close at 1,656.37 points.
