BEIJING, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks continued to fall Wednesday as most shares in the two bourses lost.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.21 percent to close at 3,480.83 points while the smaller Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.06 percent lower at 11,159.68 points.

Combined turnover on the two bourses stood at 494 billion yuan (around 78 billion U.S. dollars), expanding from 437.7 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Most stocks lost, with losers outnumbering gainers by 1,035 to 265 in Shanghai and by 1,648 to 266 in Shenzhen.

Shares in sectors including oil refinery and environmental protection led the decline. Oil giant PetroChina Company lost 1.1 percent to 9.01 yuan.

Bucking the trend, shares of home appliance producers gained. Gree Electric Appliances, one of China's leading home appliance makers, gained 2.93 percent to 55.94 yuan per share, while Midea Group rose 1.8 percent to 59.82 yuan.

Shares of liquor makers also gained with Kweichow Moutai, China's leading liquor maker, up 3.03 percent to 764.54 yuan.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 2.66 percent to end at 1,735.06 points.