Wednesday, China shares rallied in the morning session but weakened in the afternoon. The Shanghai composite index climbed to an intraday high of 3698.32 by the end of the first trading hour but following an unsuccessful attempt to advance higher the index turned around and touched the day's lows of 3591.11 before closing at 3606.86, a loss of 22.76 or 0.63%. 481 stocks declined against 291 advancing issues, while 79 remained unchanged. The Shenzhen component index showed relative strength rising 2.85% in the morning but slid to close at 13489.09, a gain of 61.81 or 0.46%. 293 issues advanced while 315 fell and 88 remained unchanged.

Turnover continued to dwindle steadily in the two markets. The short-lived rebound of PetroChina in the morning was a bearish signal for some analysts while the banking sector turned out to be the only winner in the market with Pudong Development Bank closing up 5.12% and Huaxia Bank finishing up 4.31%