China stocks extend losses amid cautious sentiment

BEIJING - China's stocks extended losses of the previous day to end lower on Wednesday, as investors, shortly cheered by the weekend's Greek election, resumed cautious sentiment.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,292.88, down 7.92 points, or 0.34 percent.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 9,821.79, down 26.37 points, or 0.27 percent.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 580 to 289 in Shanghai, while gainers outnumbered losers by 728 to 692 in Shenzhen.

Combined turnover on the two bourses dropped to 109.9 billion yuan ($17.44 billion) from 123.7 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Market sentiment remained low, despite a victory by the pro-bailout New Democracy party in Greece's Sunday parliamentary elections. The party's victory is expected to mitigate the risk of a Greek default and exit from the eurozone.

Brokerage, pharmaceutical and property shares saw drops, while shares of water suppliers and oil giants gained.

Huatai Securities Co Ltd lost 3.65 percent to finish at 11.1 yuan per share, while Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Co Ltd tumbled 4.94 percent to 23.66 yuan.

Property companies posted widespread losses after the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development on Monday reiterated that the country will maintain its tightened property market policies.

Official data released Monday showed that new home prices in 64 cities out of a statistical pool of 70 major cities stopped rising last month.

China Vanke, the country's largest property developer, fell 0.33 percent to 9.03 yuan. The Poly Real Estate Group moved down 1.62 percent to 11.54 yuan.

Bucking the trend, Jiangsu Jiangnan Water Co Ltd rose 6.81 percent to 14.9 yuan, while oil giant PetroChina rose 0.76 percent to close at 9.26 yuan.