(Yicai Global) Nov. 1 -- China's stock markets behaved during afternoon trading, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ultimately unable to overcome the psychological resistance of reaching the 3,400-points level, despite a repeated attempt during the day.

With major indexes seeing no clear effort to trade in one direction, the market eventually erased all the positive marks created earlier in the day. 

Trading volumes were slightly up compared with yesterday.

The semiconductor sector was the winner of the day, with IC chip designer Unigroup Guoxin Co. [SHE:002049] up  8.04 percent, Hunan Goke Microelectronics Co. [SHE:300672] reaching its daily up-limit of 10 percent, and Ingenic Semiconductor Co. [SHE:300223] up 5.70 percent.

Several of yesterday's hot sectors such as free trade zones and Shanghai's state-owned companies facing restructuring were among today's leading underperformers.

The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.08 percent to close at 3,395.91 points. Turnover was CNY232.0 billion(USD 34.99 billion), compared with yesterday's CNY199.9 billion.

The Shenzhen Component Index was down 0.15 percent at 11,350.32 points, with CNY249.9 billion swapped, compared with yesterday's CNY232.2 billion.

The Growth Enterprise Index, mostly comprising small-cap companies, was up 0.16 percent at 1,872.75 points, with CNY72.5 billion changing hands, also up on yesterday's CNY61.60 billion.