Chinese share prices continue to decline

Shanghai stocks continued to fall on Thursday, led by declines in consumer and agriculture shares.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 4.5 percent to 3,210.10 points, while the smaller Shenzhen Component Index tumbled 5.37 percent to 12,996.34 points.

The ChiNext Composite Index declined 5.93 percent to 2,646.26 points, while the blue chip CSI300 Index closed 4.81 percent lower at 4,516.25 points.

Turnover on the two major bourses added up to 1.51 trillion yuan (US$215 billion), compared with 1.57 trillion yuan in the previous trading day. 

Turnover on the Shanghai Stock Exchange was 679.5 billion yuan, compared with the previous day’s 674.7 billion yuan.

Despite the stock market performance, China’s economy grew 3.2 percent year on year in the second quarter, exceeding earlier market expectations, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Most sectors retreated on Thursday. In terms of individual shares, those of nearly 35 listed companies soared over 9 percent in the session, while 365 lost more than 9 percent.

Guotai Junan Securities said the decline in the A-share market was mainly due to the rapid rise in the previous time period. Investors sold their shares to lock in earlier gains, which resulted in fluctuations in market sentiment.

The share price of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, China’s biggest chipmaker, more than tripled on its first trading day on Thursday on the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market.