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BEIJING, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks ended a two-day winning streak to close lower on Wednesday after investors retreated from a previous rally.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.5 percent to close at3,245.22 points. The Shenzhen Component Index lost 0.31 percent to end at 10,553.53 points.
The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's high-growth enterprises, dropped 0.64 percent to close at 1,948.58 points.
Combined turnover expanded to about 545.8 billion yuan (about 79.3 billion U.S. dollars) on Wednesday from 513.4 billion yuan the previous trading day.
The financial and steel sectors led Wednesday's fall. Bank of Nanjing lost 2.38 percent to close at 11.47 yuan, and Fangda Special Steel Technology dropped 3.49 percent to close at 7.2 yuan.
Analysts said that liquidity concerns have curbed some investors' appetite for risk.
In Wednesday's interbank market, the overnight Shanghai Interbank Offered Rate (Shibor), which measures the cost at which Chinese banks lend to one another, climbed 0.3 basis points to 2.6507 percent. The Shibor for one-month loans rose 4.01 basis points to 4.3959 percent.
According to the government work report delivered at the annual parliamentary session, China will pursue a prudent and neutral monetary policy in 2017, with the M2 money supply growing by around 12 percent, one percentage point lower than the 2016 target.
