Chinese shares closed down 0.24 percent on Thursday after rising for three straight days, but turnover rose, suggesting investors were still optimistic about the market's longer-term trend.
The benchmark Shanghai composite index finished at 1,851.314 points, and was still up 2.44 percent since the close of last Friday. It touched an intra-high of 1,857.145 on Thursday morning, the highest level since September 2001.
Turnover in Shanghai A-shares was an active 28.0 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), up from 26.9 billion on Wednesday.
Index heavyweight Shanghai International Port (Group) Co, China's largest port and the operator of the world's busiest port, soared 6.04 percent to 4.39 yuan and ranked top by trading volume, after it surged its 10 percent daily limit the previous day, buoyed by its strong growth prospects.
Four relatively small firms launched initial public offers on Thursday, but analysts said that had no major impact. "The market now has stronger capability to handle IPOs since it has successfully got over the fund pressure from ICBC's IPO," said Galaxy's analyst Li Shiming.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which launched the country's biggest-ever IPO last month, closed down 0.61 percent at 3.28 yuan after reaching a post-listing intra-day low of 3.25 yuan. ICBC's peer stock China Merchants Bank fell 2.63 percent to 10.35 yuan on Thursday. But analysts said the index would generally keep rising through the end of the year.
Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union surged its daily 10 percent limit to a near 4-month high of 2.54 yuan as it resumed trading after a suspension from Monday. It said on Thursday it would buy steel-making assets from its parent in a deal worth 7 billion yuan.
This boosted the whole sector, with top domestic steel maker Baoshan Iron and Steel Co up 1.74 percent at 5.26 yuan. The stock has gained 17 percent since it posted strong third-quarter results late last Friday.
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