It has been another ugly session for Chinese stocks.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed Wednesday's session at 2,949.6 points, a decline of 2.4%.
It was the first time the index closed below the 3,000-point level since August 26, and it extended the indexes rout from December 23 to 19.96%.
The index is nearly back in another technical bear market, defined as a decline of 20%.
The decline in Shanghai was mirrored across the nation, with large-cap stocks outperforming their smaller peers.
The SSE 50 and CSI 300 — comprising larger firms — fell by 1.19% and 1.86% respectively, outperforming losses of over 3% for the likes of the CSI 500, the Shenzhen Composite, and the tech-heavy ChiNext.
The losses in stocks came despite a surprise upside beat for Chinese trade data in December, along with continued stability in the Chinese yuan.
While both continued to contract, Chinese export and import figures both beat expectations in December, leaving the trade surplus in excess of $60 billion for the month.
Having been fixed by the People's Bank of China at 6.5630 earlier in the session, the USD/CNY was relatively stable on Wednesday — at least compared with recent norms — operating in a 72 pip range in Asian trade.
It currently buys 6.5763, the same level as offshore traded yuan, or USD/CNH.
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