Mainland exchanges fall amid new share sales

Chinese shares closed lower on Thursday after several days of gains, owing to new share sales, profit-taking and adjustment.

The key Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.11 percent to end at 3,057.52 points, ending a six-day rising streak. The smaller Shenzhen Component Index closed at 10,665.18 points, down 1.13 percent, having risen in the three previous sessions.

The CSI 300 index of the 300 biggest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen declined by 0.44 percent to 3,345.93 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses shrank to 739.49 billion yuan ($120.83 billion) from Wednesday's 908.67 billion yuan.

Brokerages and banks, which had gained significantly over the past few trading days, fell back on Thursday. A total of 10 brokerage firms lost more than 8 percent, with Soochow Securities falling by almost the 10 percent daily limit.

Firms related to the aviation industry, hydroproject construction and railway project construction bucked the trend and held off greater losses.

China Railway Construction Corp and China Railway Erju Co both continued to rise by the daily limit for the second consecutive trading day.

Analysts attributed Thursday's weak performance partly to the fact that investors were holding more cash for new share sales, with the latest round of IPOs to lock up at least 1.3 trillion yuan, according to the Economic Information Daily.

The seventh round of new offerings, the last of this year with 12 new offerings, started on Thursday, causing frenzied subscription as investors bet on handsome first-day gains.

In the previous batch, among the 10 new offerings on November 24-25, five were more than 200 times oversubscribed, while the other five were at least 50 times oversubscribed.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's securities watchdog, has approved seven rounds of offerings since June.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board for high-tech and fast-growing start-ups, fell by 0.62 percent to 1,634.05 points.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose by 1.09 percent to 22,832.21 points on Thursday.