SHANGHAI: China stocks erased earlier gains and ended Wednesday lower as a weaker yuan pulled down prices of real estate developers and airliners.The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.5 per cent to 3,431.32 while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.4 per cent to 2,787.26 points.China's yuan hit a two-week low against a broadly stronger US dollar on Wednesday, breaching the key 6.7 per dollar level.Property firms, whose value is linked to foreign interest in yuan assets, fell over 2 per cent, while airliners, which are burdened with heavy dollar borrowings, also dropped.
The blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.5 per cent, with its financial sector sub-index trading 0.53 per cent lower; the consumer staples sector was down 0.82 per cent, the real estate index was 2.08 per cent weaker while the healthcare sub-index edged up 0.18 per cent.
The smaller Shenzhen index ended down 0.75 per cent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.85 per cent.Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.06 per cent while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.43 per cent.
At 07:21 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.7127 per US dollar, 0.14 per cent weaker than the previous close of 6.7035.
The top per centage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Huafang Co Ltd, up 10.12 per cent, followed by Founder Technology Group Co Ltd, up 10.04 per cent and Zhenhai Petrochemical Engineering Co Ltd , up 10.04 per cent.
The top per centage losers in the Shanghai index were Henan Oriental Silver Star Investment Co Ltd, down 10 per cent, followed by Veken Technology Co Ltd, down 7.82 per cent and Shenma Industry Co Ltd, down 7.54 per cent.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 15.7 per cent, the CSI300 has fallen 14.9 per cent while China's H-share index listed in Hong Kong is down 9.7 per cent.
Shanghai stocks have declined 2.07 per cent this month.About 12.10 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 93.3 per cent of the market's 30-day moving average of 12.97 billion shares a day.
The volume in the previous trading session was 10.54 billion.
As of 07:21 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 18.39 per cent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 12.08 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.7 per cent.