Stocks in China fell a second consecutive day as a government-engineered recovery proved fleeting and surprisingly strong growth data dimmed hopes for more economic stimulus.

The Shanghai Composite ended down 3% at 3805.70, continuing to shed gains from a three-day rally that had lifted the benchmark roughly 13%. The index’s losses Tuesday and Wednesday total 4%, putting it 26% below a seven-plus-year high it reached on June 12.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite fell 4.2% to 2058.84, and the small-cap ChiNext board shed 5% to 2590.03. Both are down about a third since their respective peaks in June. A gauge of Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong fell 1.3%, dragging the Hang Seng Index down 0.3% to 25055.76.

Trading has begun again this week in hundreds of mainland firms whose shares were suspended during the downturn. The return of those shares “pulled money away from other stocks…causing the overall market to go down,” said Gerry Alfonso, director of trading at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities.

About a quarter of the firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen remained halted as of Wednesday, down from more than half at the height of the freeze earlier this month. About 696 mainland firms remain suspended, according to FactSet. The majority of firms returning to trade Monday and Tuesday hit regulators’ upward daily limit of 10%, whereas only a fraction of those did on Wednesday.