Beijing, Nov 18 (IANS): China's stocks continued to drop on Wednesday with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 1.01 percent to close at 3,568.5 points.

The smaller Shenzhen index lost 1.82 percent to close at 12,283.8 points, Xinhua reported.

Total turnover on the two bourses narrowed to 943.1 yuan ($148 billion) from 1.27 trillion yuan the previous trading day.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, went down 2.06 percent to close at 2,661.2 points.

In the afternoon session, strong banking shares briefly pulled the Shanghai index into positive territory, but the gains lost ground by close.

Securities led the drops on Wednesday, with Western Securities plunging 9.16 percent to end at 37.11 yuan.

Bucking the trend, property and banking shares performed well. China Vanke, the country's largest property developer by market value, rose 4.79 percent to close at 14.67 yuan.

Data on Wednesday showed China's real estate sector reported slower recovery in October with a weaker price increase, mainly dragged down by persistent oversupply problems.

Of 70 large and medium-sized cities surveyed in October, new home prices climbed month on month in 27, down from 39 in the previous month.