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1st LD-Writethru: Financial heavyweights lead Chinese shares to drop Thursday

Xinhua, March 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chinese shares wobbled on Thursday, dragged down by financial heavyweights and breaching the 3,000-point psychological barrier.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.63 percent to close at 2,960.97 points while the smaller Shenzhen index closed 1.52 percent lower at 10,283.68 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, finished 1.74 percent lower at 2,219.77 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses rose mildly to 730 billion yuan (112 billion U.S. dollars), compared with 670 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbered gainers 818 to 166 in Shanghai and 1,178 to 343 in Shenzhen.

The benchmark Shanghai index remained stubbornly negative during the day's trading and sped up losses near closing, dragged down by financial heavyweights, which were the worst performers across the board on Thursday.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation's largest bank, lost 0.93 percent to end the day at 4.26 yuan.

The oil and coal sectors also underperformed, declining by 2.78 percent and 2.66 percent respectively.

PetroChina, China's top oil producer, saw a decline of 1.93 percent at closing on Thursday.

The decline came after another brokerage firm, Ping An Securities Group, announced it will resume short selling starting Thursday, following more than 30 other securities companies.

The recent fluctuations in the Chinese yuan against the U.S. dollar also added to the market nerves. Endite