Chinese stocks closed lower on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.77 percent at 2,821.67 points.
The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.97 percent lower at 9,821.7 points.
Nearly 2,000 stocks listed on the two bourses went down, with the banking and steel sectors losing the most.
Turnover on the two bourses stood at 371.4 billion yuan (57.1 billion U.S. dollars), retreating from 419.3 billion yuan on the previous trading day.
The lackluster trading suggested market sentiment is still weak and is being affected by ongoing de-leveraging of the economy, according to Guotai Junan Securities.
The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 1.08 percent to close at 2,075.51 points.
