Chinese shares finished slightly higher Tuesday after fluctuations throughout the day, with divergent performance among cyclicals and growth firms.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.07 percent at 3,281.87, returning to growth in the last three minutes before closing. The smaller Shenzhen Component Index performed better, up 0.43 percent at 10,496.25.

Trading remained subdued on the two bourses at 527 billion yuan (nearly 80 billion U.S. dollars).

Cyclicals including steel smelting and coal mining suffered. Financial and consumer shares also declined. Two heavyweight crude producers, PetroChina and China Petroleum & Chemical, dropped 0.12 percent and 0.17 percent respectively.

IT and other growth companies led the rise. Iflytek, a tech firm developing artificial intelligence in speech and language, jumped 6.55 percent.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style enterprises, gained 1.73 percent to close at 1,762.42.

The market was weighed on by China's slowing trade data. Exports rose 11.2 percent year on year in July, retreating from the 17.3-percent growth in June, while imports increased 14.7 percent, slowing from 23.1 percent last month.

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