China's trust industry continued to shrink last year amid tighter financial regulation, while sustaining its momentum in supporting the real economy.

Total trust assets of the country's 68 market players reached 21.6 trillion yuan ($3 trillion) at the end of 2019, down 4.85 percent year on year, data from the China Trustee Association showed.

Industrial and commercial enterprises continued to take the lion's share of total trust investment in the period, followed by basic industries, real estate and financial institutions.

The balance of the trust capital invested in industrial and commercial firms stood at 5.49 trillion yuan ($0.76 trillion), accounting for 30.6 percent of the capital's total balance.

In 2019, the sector raked in 120 billion yuan ($16.67 billion) of business revenue, increasing by 5.22 percent from the previous year and reversing a losing streak.