Chinese shares continue to fall on Thursday

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed lower Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.56 percent at 3,119.29 points.

The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.82 percent lower at 10,131.23 points.

Turnover on the two exchanges stood at 363.7 billion yuan (about 52.33 billion U.S. dollars).

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ style growth enterprises, suffering losses for the sixth consecutive trading day, fell0.38 percent to close at 1,930.14 points.

Analysts said the market would remain weak before the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, which falls on Jan. 28 this year.

Chinese investors tend to wrap up a whole year's work and take their profits before having a week-long holiday for the most important festival of the year.

Ship producers and steel makers led Thursday's decline. The share price of China CSSC Holdings, a leading Chinese ship maker, dropped 2.92 percent to 28.88 yuan. Hunan Valin Steel fell 6.92 percent to 5.65 yuan.

Agricultural and cement stocks also saw weak performances. Shares of Xinjiang Korla Pear were down 5.88 percent to 26.43 yuan, while Zhejiang Jianfeng Group dropped 3.5 percent to 16.26 yuan.