Chinese shares close lower Wednesday

Chinese stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.49 percent to 3,970.88 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.87 percent lower at 14,939.73 points.

The combined turnover of stocks covered by these two indices reached 2.56 trillion yuan (about 376 billion U.S. dollars), down from 2.6 trillion yuan in the previous trading day.

Stocks related to computing power leasing, AI server, information security and gold led the gains, while those related to the humanoid robots and lithium mining were among the top decliners.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 1.7 percent to close at 3,845.35 points.

The STAR Composite Index, which reflects the performance of stocks on China's sci-tech innovation board, closed 0.44 percent lower at 2,305.5 points.

China on Wednesday launched a national summer holiday cultural and tourism consumption campaign, with more than 450 million yuan (about 66 million U.S. dollars) worth of consumer vouchers to be distributed.

Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the campaign aims to improve the supply of seasonal tourism products and services and encourage people to enjoy travel during the summer holidays.

Running from early July to late August, the campaign is expected to feature more than 30,000 activities nationwide, catering to popular travel demands, such as summer getaways, coastal vacations, night tourism, cruise trips and study tours.

The ministry, along with other relevant agencies, will put a series of support measures in place, ranging from travel information guides to preferential financial policies.

A launching event was held in Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province on Wednesday.

This campaign comes as China has set a target of significantly enhancing people's access to and satisfaction with tourism by 2030, according to a new five-year tourism development plan issued on Tuesday.