China’s benchmark stock index followed up its second-worst single-day percentage decline with a drop of less than 2 per cent on Tuesday. The Shanghai Composite finished a volatile session down 1.7 per cent at 3,663 after heavy buying of shares in state-owned banks helped pull it off lows. Nevertheless that was a third straight decline for the index, which fell more than 5 per cent during the trading day. Bank stocks comprise a disproportionately large share of the index and some analysts said their strong performance could reflect targeted buying by state-directed investors trying to support the market. In Shenzhen, the Composite index ended 2.3 per cent lower at 2,110.9 while the tech-heavy ChiNext fells 3.8 per cent. The CSI 300 index tracking the largest companies traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen was down 0.2 per cent. At its intraday low the Shanghai index was approaching the nadir of 3,507 points it hit on July 8, when the government announced measures to prop up a market that had collapsed more than 30 per cent in less than a month.