Chinese shares close mixed Thursday

BEIJING - Chinese shares closed mixed on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up by 0.06 percent to finish at 4,378.31 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index lost 0.98 percent to close at 15,024.47 points.

Combined turnover on the two bourses shrank to 1.39 trillion yuan (around $227 billion), down from 1.55 trillion yuan registered on the previous trading day.

Sectors including rare earth and nuclear power were robust.

China Minmetals Rare Earth Co, a major rare earth producer, surged by the 10 percent daily limit to 38.16 yuan per share, while Shenzhen Woer Heat-Shrinkable Material Co also rose to the changing cap to close at 28.68 yuan per share.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, shed 1.58 percent to end at 3,141.59 points due to accumulating concerns on bubbles in small-cap stocks after an unexpectedly strong rising trend in last week and the start of this week.

China's stock market experienced major fluctuation this week due to mixed factors including interest rate cuts and lackluster economic indicators for April.

Enthusiasm from individual investors also began to wane as new stock accounts set up last week dropped nearly 17 percent from a week ago, marking the second decline in a row.

Gao Xiang, an analyst from CITIC Securities, attributed the fluctuation to unstable market sentiment and said coming initial public offerings, especially the flotation of some super large cap stocks, also added to the volatility.