A man gestures as he looks at stock price movements on a screen at a securities company in Beijing on Feb 6, 2018. (Photo: AFP)

BEIJING (Xinhua) -- China's Hushen 300 index futures closed lower Tuesday, with the contract for July 2018 down 0.96 percent to finish at 3,492 points.

The August contract was down 1.04 percent to close at 3,473.6 points. The September contract was down 1.16 percent to finish at 3,453.8. The December contract went down 1.5 percent to finish at 3,427.2.

The stock-index contracts, agreements to buy or sell the Hushen 300 Index at a preset value on an agreed date, are designed to allow investors to bet on and profit from either gains or declines in the market.

The index futures was launched at the China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and started trading from April 16, 2010. The CFFEX has set the base value for all the contracts at 3,399 points.