1st LD-Writethru: Chinese stocks wobble Thursday

Chinese stocks closed on a weak note on Thursday, trimming initial gains by nose-diving near closing.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.16 percent to close at 2,862.89 points while the smaller Shenzhen index edged down 0.45 percent at 10,116.4 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, dived 1.1 percent to close at 2,190.91 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses increased further, standing at 590.61 billion yuan (90.65 billion U.S. dollars).

Nearly 70 stocks rose by the daily limit of 10 percent despite the negative closing, and only 7 stocks declined by 5 percent.

Chinese shares opened positive and climbed higher during the morning session, boosted by solid gains in the real estate and oil sectors.

Poly Real Estate Group, China's second-largest property developer, surged by 1.32 percent and closed at 9.2 yuan.

Sub-indexes related to manufacturing, such as aviation and shipbuilding, reversed their remarkable gains of Wednesday and ranked as the worst performers on Thursday.

The benchmark Shanghai index remained positive during the afternoon session with mild fluctuations, before plunging in the last 30 minutes near closing.

The quick and sudden drop near closing dashed investors' hope for a three-day winning streak in Chinese shares.

A new set of economic data released in the morning, which signalled China's easing deflationary pressure, also helped to buoy the growth in the stock market during the morning session.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, grew 1.8 percent year on year in January, up from a rise of 1.6 percent in December, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Thursday. Endi