Chinese stocks retreated on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shedding 1.72 percent to close at 3,375.20 points.

    The smaller Shenzhen index fell 2.25 percent to close at 11,494.35 points. The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, plummeted 3.07 percent to end at 2,485.24 points.

    Total turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses stood at 916.44 billion yuan (144.156 billion U.S. dollars), down from 980 trillion yuan the previous trading day.

    More than 1,800 shares fell on the two major bourses. Losers outnumbered winners by 758 to 141 in Shanghai, and by 1,161 to 283 in Shenzhen.

    Bucking the trend, stocks related to fuel gas, water supply and treatment, high-speed rail, iron and steel industries performed strongly, with several shares hitting the daily growth limit of 10 percent.

    Xinjiang Haoyuan Natural Gas Co., surged 10 percent to end at 13.59 yuan per share. China High Speed Railway Technology Co., also surged by the daily cap of 10 percent to close at 13.74 yuan per share.

    The indexes opened low in the morning, then fluctuated and climbed into positive territory several times during the day, before tumbling nearly 2 percent in the afternoon session.

    Despite the retreat, an analyst with Shaanxi Jufeng Investment Information said the market has begun to recover after its recent crisis and that there will be more gains in the near future. The analyst cited as reasons for optimism the central bank's cutting of interest rates and reserve requirement ratio, moves that are likely to reduce the cost of financing and boost the economy.