Chinese shares extended declines on Thursday, registering over 8-percent losses in the past three trading days. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunged 2.77 percent to finish at 4,112.21 points. The Shenzhen Component Index dropped 0.15 percent to close at 14,114.73 points. Total turnover on the two bourses stood at 987 billion yuan (161.5 million U.S. dollars), ending the successive trillion-level mania. Over 1,600 shares on the two bourses ended in negative territory, with insurance, infrastructure, steel, shipbuilding and electric power sectors leading the declines. Lingering impacts from central authorities' warnings and the capital withdraw by new IPOs continued dragging down the figures, triggering vast investor worry. Altogether 53 shares dived by the daily limit of 10 percent, including heavyweight shares like China Railway Group, Power Construction and GD Power Development. Brokerage sector remained the pillar to prevent sharper drops with the sub-index up 1.57 percent. Shanxi Securities surged 6.65 percent to 23.88 yuan per share. Haitong Securities went up 1.41 percent to 28.75 yuan per share. Gao Xiang, an analyst with CITIC Securities, believed the plunges indicate likely month-long corrections in May, saying overall market trend was not reversed. "Market corrections are necessary," he said. "The previous frenzy is cooling down to cautious investment, paving way for future rebounds and a mild bull market." The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, fell 1.42 percent to end at 2,806.05 points.
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