China stocks fell on Thursday, their third straight session of losses, as worries lingered over the country's economic health amid its trade spat with the United States.
The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 1.0 percent to 3,351.09 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index also closed down 1.1 percent at 2,737.74 points.
Main sectors fell across the board, except utilities which ended 0.1 percent higher.
Activity in China's vast factory sector likely slowed for the third straight month in August as domestic demand remained weak and exporters faced rising uncertainties from the escalating trade war with the United States, a Reuters poll showed.
"Investors are relatively pessimistic and cautious for now amid low levels of trading volume, as there are still concerns over the development of Sino-US trade spat," said Yan Kaiwen, an analyst with China Fortune Securities.
The largest percentage gainers on the main Shanghai Composite index were Delixi Xinjiang Transportation Co Ltd up 10 percent, followed by Dynagreen Environmental Protection Group Co Ltd gaining 9.98 percent and Zhonglu Co Ltd up by 9.97 percent.
The largest percentage losses on the Shanghai index were Xinjiang Tianye Co Ltd down 9.98 percent, followed by Shenzhen Hopewind Electric Co Ltd losing 9.81 percent and Linewell Software Co Ltd down by 8.9 percent.
So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is down 17.2 percent, the CSI300 has fallen 16.9 percent while China's H-share index listed in Hong Kong is down 6.3 percent. Shanghai stocks have declined 4.82 percent this month.
About 10.61 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 79.1 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 13.41 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 10.02 billion.
The Shanghai stock index is below its 50-day moving average and below its 200-day moving average.
The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 11.78 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2.7 percent.
So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 1.46 percent to 29.48 trillion yuan.