Chinese shares close mixed Thursday

BEIJING - Chinese shares closed mixed on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.76 percent to finish at 4,947.1 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index lost 0.21 percent to close at 17,501.05 points.

Chinese shares experienced a rollercoaster ride in the afternoon trading session, with the Shanghai Index diving more than 5 percent five minutes after the opening bell and then rebounding above 4,900 points before closing.

Total turnover on the two bourses expanded to 2.03 trillion yuan ($332.1 billion U.S. dollars) from Wednesday's 2.02 trillion yuan.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.97 percent to end at 3,943.47 points, after a nearly 7-percent slump soon after the afternoon trading session.

Financial sectors including banking and securities led the gains. Banking stocks increased by nearly 4 percent. Bank of Communications surged by the daily limit of 10 percent to end at 8.12 yuan on expectations for its mixed ownership reform moves.

Earlier this week, several Chinese banks launched plans to optimize ownership structure or improve management framework by spinning off some business, signaling that China's banking industry may pull back the curtain of mixed ownership reforms in 2015.

The coal sector was also one of the biggest winners, rising nearly 5 percent. Sdic Xinji Energy surged by the daily limit of 10 percent to end at 12.93 yuan.

Gao Xiang, an analyst with CITIC Securities, deemed the rollercoaster ride of Chinese shares as necessary adjustment before Shanghai Index hitting to another new high of the landmark 5,000 points.

He expects the market will stay active this week and the market will attract more liquidity in the coming weeks.