Chinese shares fall, end six-day rising streak

BEIJING -- Chinese shares closed lower following six days of gains on Thursday, 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.

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

Brokerage firms and banks, which had gained significantly over the past several trading days, fell and weighed down the index.

The financial sub-index tumbled over 4 percent. A total of 10 brokerage firms lost more than 8 percent, with Soochow Securities falling by almost the 10-percent daily limit.

CITIC Securities, an industry leader which surged by the daily limit in the previous two trading days, was the least affected, losing only 3.1 percent.

Firms related to the aviation industry, hydroproject construction and railway project construction bucked the trend and prevented the index from more losses.

China Railway Construction Corp Ltd and China Railway Erju Co Ltd 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 initial public offerings to lock up at least 1.3 trillion yuan, according to Xinhua-run 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 Nov 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, when the Commission restarted the IPO market, with 78 firms listed or with plans to list on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.