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(REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon) A board at a brokerage office in Beijing on Monday showing stock prices.

Stocks in China are in free fall.

Markets across Asia followed China's key share indexes into the red Tuesday despite further efforts from Beijing to stave off the relentless fall in Chinese share prices.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite closed down 5.9% for the day, having fallen by as much as 8.2%, while the SSE 50 index of the top 50 stocks on the bourse ended down 7.2%. The CSI 300 of the largest listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges was down 6.7%.

Authorities acknowledged that panic selling had taken hold among Chinese investors.

A China Securities Regulatory Commission spokesman said markets were "full of panic emotion and the number of irrational selling has been increasing," according to a report in the South China Morning Post.

One-third of the value of Chinese stocks has now been wiped off in three weeks.

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(Investing.com)

The declines come despite a raft of measures from Chinese policymakers in recent weeks designed to boost stock prices. Interest rates have been cut, and rules have been augmented to discourage selling while brokers, asset managers, and Chinese insurers have all outlined plans to increase their exposure to the stocks.

More than 1,000 listed Chinese companies temporarily suspended trade on Wednesday in an attempt to avoid the market carnage. While they have escaped the declines for the moment, those firms that are still trading are feeling the full brunt of selling pressure.

The carnage in China is now spreading to other markets across the region. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong has slumped 5.8%, while the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell by 3.1% and the ASX 200 in Australia was off 2.0%.

Reuters is reporting that the People's Bank of China is saying it will support market stability by providing liquidity.

From Reuters:

The statement came shortly after announcements by other regulators, including one by China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) spokesperson Deng Ge warning of panic in the market and increasing "irrational selling" of stocks.

The CSRC said it would provide liquidity to brokerages via the China Securities Finance Corp, a state-controlled industry body, and would also monitor conditions in the small-cap CSI500 futures market.

The China Securities Finance Corp said it will step up purchases of shares in medium and small-cap stocks, which have been selling off rapidly as investors migrate into large-cap blue-chip shares targeted for investment by the stock stabilization fund, or sell out of the market entirely.

The China Financial Futures exchange announced it would raise requirements for short positions against CSI500 index futures, which would make it more difficult to short that index, while the insurance regulator chimed in by allowing insurers to buy more blue chip stocks.

In a presentation Tuesday, Jeff Gundlach of DoubleLine Capital, the so-called bond king, said only one thing could be said about the Chinese stock market: "It's not good."

In early trade Wednesday, that is an understatement.