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1st LD-Writethru: China stocks closed lower Thursday

Xinhua, April 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese shares closed lower due to weak heavyweights on Thursday, the last trading day before the three-day Labor Day holiday.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 0.78 percent, or 34.97 points, to finish at 4,441.65 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index lost 0.36 percent, or 53.31 points, to close at 14,818.64 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses increased mildly to 1.36 trillion yuan (221.42 billion U.S. dollars), up from 1.3 trillion yuan on the previous trading day.

Shares in the financial, non-ferrous metal, oil, and shipmaking sectors led the declines.

Two major oil refineries and heavyweights, PetroChina Co. and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., dropped over 2 percent.

However, small caps continued with their rising performance as the ChiNext Index, China's Nasdaq-style tracking board of growth enterprises, rose 2.16 percent, or 60.37 points, to end at 2,857.89 points.

The stock market experienced substantial fluctuation this week, bucking the previous rising trend.

Gao Xiang, analyst from CITIC Securities, attributed the volatility to the upcoming initial public offerings (IPOs) in May and cautious attitude of some major institutional investors. Endi