1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares gain Thursday

BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed higher Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.51 percent to close at 3,288.41.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.05 percent higher at 11,019.08.

Combined turnover on the two bourses stood at 402.8 billion yuan (about 64 billion U.S. dollars), down from 428.5 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 948 to 304 on the Shanghai bourse and by 301 to 144 in Shenzhen.

China will promote the Xiongan New Area to the world this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress.

The sub-index of Xiongan New Area and environmental protection surged 5.56 percent, with over 10 shares surging by the daily limit of 10 percent, including Ningxia Qinglong Pipes Industry and Tianjin Capital Environmental Protection Group.

Shares of home appliances, biomedicine as well as food and beverage also gained, with the sub-indices up 2.9 percent, 2.54 percent and 1.92 percent, respectively.

Bucking the trend, banking and nonferrous sectors dropped the most, with the sub-indices down 0.41 percent and 0.11 percent, respectively.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style enterprises, gained 0.45 percent to close at 1,793.22. Enditem