BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed lower Thursday, with shares of an industrial hemp producer leading the losses.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went down 0.4 percent at 3,250.2 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.55 percent lower at 10,287.67 points.
Combined trading volume on the two bourses dropped to 753.42 billion yuan (around 112.62 billion U.S. dollars) from 830.1 billion yuan the previous trading day.
Most stocks fell, with losers outnumbering gainers by 1,008 to 411 on the Shanghai bourse, and 1,475 to 619 in Shenzhen.
Industrial hemp producer Hunan Fangsheng Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. led the declines, dropping by the daily limit of 10 percent to close at 13.56 yuan per share.
The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.75 percent to close at 1,704.55 points Thursday.
