Stocks retreat from 4-day rally

Shanghai stocks retreated on Thursday from their earlier four-day rally, dragged down by losses in technology shares.

The Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.31 percent to close at 2,905.81 points. The smaller Shenzhen Component Index fell 0.74 percent to 8,943.35 points, while the blue chip CSI300 index ended 0.62 percent lower at 3,641.18 points.

Total turnover on the two major bourses expanded slightly to 453.54 billion yuan (US$65.67 billion) from the 445.93 billion yuan the day before.

Most industry sectors fell in general, according to Wind Information, with only the sub-indexes of agriculture, forestry, livestock and fisheries, petroleum and petrochemical shares, non-ferrous metal, electricity and utilities, and coal firms posting gains.

Computer stocks led the drop, with Fujian Start Group Co, Shanghai Wondertek Software Co and Hunan Copote Science & Technology Co all tumbling by the daily limit of 10 percent.

The communications sector also weakened. Troy Information Technology Co took a nosedive by the maximum 10 percent, and Datang Telecom Technology Co fell by 6.98 percent.

Stocks related to domestic operating systems, rare earth shares, and the non-bank financial sector were among the big decliners.