BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed lower Monday with thin trading, as losses in financial heavyweights dragged down performance.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.61 percent lower at 2,814.04 points while the Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.1 percent lower at 9,317.36 points.
Total turnover on the two stock exchanges stood at 325.5 billion yuan (48.76 billion U.S. dollars), shrinking from 366 billion yuan the previous trading day.
Financial shares fell across the board, with Ping An Insurance, with market capitalization of over one trillion yuan, ending 1.4 percent lower.
The SSE 50 Index, which tracks 50 stocks on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with large market capitalization and high liquidity, lost 1.13 percent.
The loss came after China released economic data for the first half of the year. GDP expanded 6.8 percent year on year in the first half, well above the government's annual growth target of around 6.5 percent.
Gao Ting, a UBS Securities analyst, said that there are opportunities for the A-shares to recover some ground after sharp corrections in the first half.
Growth in sectors including beverages, medical care, as well as education will be relatively stable, according to Gao.
The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, was down 0.1 percent to close at 1,616.91 points Monday.
