Chinese share markets continued their freefall on Wednesday, hitting markets hard around the region.

In Australia, the All Ordinaries Index fell 2 per cent, wiping billions of dollars off the value of shares as investors worried about China and the future of Greece.

It ended down 107 points to 5,457 and the ASX 200 lost 112 points to 5,470.

Miners and energy stocks led the falls, with the price of iron ore dropping below $US50 a tonne — below breakeven for some of Australia's smaller miners.

BHP Billiton lost 3 per cent or 82 cents to $25.43 and Rio Tinto fell more than 3 per cent or $1.68 to $50.06.

Woodside Petroleum also fell nearly 3 per cent or $1.02 to $33.62, but Fortescue Metals lead the falls, slumping 6 per cent or 11 cents to $1.68.

Shanghai market falls eight out of past 10 days

In China, share markets slumped again despite increased measures by regulators to stop the plunge.

The Shanghai Composite Index fell nearly 6 per cent or 220 points to 3,507, its lowest level since March.

The fall marks the eighth day of declines for the Shanghai market within the past 10 days.

The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 2.5 per cent or 48 points to 1,884.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped 5.8 per cent to 23,517.

There are also reports another 500 to 600 Chinese firms have suspended trading in their shares.

But despite less stocks trading on the market, investors are still flooding out of those they can still trade.

Several market analysts are now predicting Chinese stock markets could give up most of the past year's extraordinary 150 per cent gains.

However, analysts remain split on what impact the share market crash will have on China's economy.

In Japan the Nikkei lost 3 per cent to close at 19,737.

Commodities were rocked by the China jitters too, with West Texas Crude oil trading at $US52.33 a barrel and Singapore's Tapis Crude trading at $US59.02 a barrel.

Spot gold is lower too at $US1,148 an ounce.

Earlier in the day the Australian dollar fell to a new six-year low of below 74 US cents. At 5:30pm (AEST) it was trading at around 73.9 US cents and was weaker against other major currencies.

It was buying 67.2 Euro cents, 89.9 Japanese yen, 47.9 British pence and $NZ1.11.