Agriculture, consumer firms lead decline

China stocks continue to fall on Thursday, led by declines in agriculture and consumer companies.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.41 percent to close at 3,270.44 points. The smaller Shenzhen Component Index edged up 0.03 percent to 13,015.19 points.

The ChiNext ended 0.1 percent higher at 2,557.32 points, while the bluechip CSI300 Index dropped 0.53 percent to 4,632.71 points.

Trading volume on the two major bourses added up to 753.6 billion yuan (US$111.4 billion), compared with the previous trading day’s 684.3 billion yuan.

As for individual shares, nearly 55 listed firms posted gains of more than 9 percent, while nine declined by over 9 percent.

Despite the decline in the A-share market, China's central bank on Thursday continued to pump cash into the banking system in order to maintain reasonable and adequate liquidity. The People's Bank of China injected 110 billion yuan into the market through seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2.2 percent.

Shandong Huifa Foodstuff Co Ltd fell 4.15 percent to 16.65 yuan, while Xinjiang Talimu Agriculture Development Co Ltd lost 2.86 percent to 9.17 yuan.

Guotai Junan Securities said investors should pay attention to new-energy vehicle shares as car sales are expected to rise in the third quarter. The securities firm said electronics companies will continue to benefit from 5G developments and suggested a focus on wireless headsets.