Pork, building materials drag shares down

China stocks retreated on Thursday from earlier rallies, dragged by slumps in pork shares and building material firms.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.96 percent to 2,870.34 points, while the smaller Shenzhen Component Index tumbled 1.02 percent to 10,962.15 points.

The ChiNext Composite Index, meanwhile, dropped 1.08 percent to 2,117.65 points, while the blue chip CSI300 Index also closed 1.08 percent lower at 3,925.22 points.

Turnover on the two major stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen expanded to total 610.1 billion yuan (US$86 billion) compared with the 581.5 billion yuan in the previous session.

Capital continued to flow out of the Chinese mainland, with a net influx of 1.325 billion yuan via the Stock Connect schemes linking Shanghai and Shenzhen with Hong Kong.

Stocks of over 50 companies listed on the two bourses jumped by more than 9 percent, while three dropped by over 9 percent.

Shares related to pork led the losses as pork prices retreated. In the agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery sector, Shandong Longda Meat Foodstuff Co, Wellhope Agri-Tech Joint Stock Co and Hunan Dakang International Food & Agriculture Co all plunged by over 6 percent.

Cement and building material firms were also among the biggest decliners. Xinjiang Qingsong Building Materials and Chemicals Group Co shed 6.49 percent, while Xinjiang Tianshan Cement Co and Jiangsu Canlon Building Materials Co both edged down over 4 percent.

Airports, insurance companies, medical and health care stocks as well as shares related to the dairy industry also performed weakly.

On the STAR Market, 37 of the 102 listed firms rose, two remained flat, while the remainder posted losses. Hangzhou Raycloud Technology Co jumped 10.11 percent to be the biggest gainer, while Beijing Hotgen Biotech Co declined the most by 6.81 percent.