Chinese shares close lower Wednesday

Chinese stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 2.4 percent to 3,894.42 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 5.01 percent lower at 13,890.15 points.

The combined turnover of stocks covered by the two indices stood at around 2.5 trillion yuan (about 370.07 billion U.S. dollars), up from 2.4 trillion yuan on the previous trading day.

Bucking the downward trend, shares in coal and banking sectors led the gains, while those in sectors including computing hardware and semiconductor chip were among the top decliners.

China's leading humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics, the first humanoid robot maker listed on the A-share market, made its debut on the Shanghai STAR Market Wednesday. Its shares opened 629.44 percent higher and ended the day up 460.34 percent, with turnover reaching 23.16 billion yuan.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 6.26 percent to close at 3,473.49 points Wednesday.

The STAR Composite Index, which reflects the performance of stocks on China's sci-tech innovation board, closed 7.16 percent lower at 1,954.02 points on Wednesday.

The STAR 50 Index, which tracks the 50 largest stocks listed on the board that also meet certain liquidity requirements, closed 6.89 percent lower at 1,667.52 points.

The sci-tech innovation board, commonly known as the STAR Market, was inaugurated in June 2019 at Shanghai Stock Exchange. It is designed to support companies in the high-tech and strategic emerging sectors.