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BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed lower on Friday, but registered their sixth consecutive weekly gain thanks to growing signs of a stabilizing economy.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.49 percent at 3,192.86 points.
The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.51 percent lower at 10,889.11 points.
The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.23 percent to close at 2,157.96 points. [ Total turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses was 544.3 billion yuan (79.12 billion U.S. dollars), shrinking by 1.37 billion yuan from the previous trading day.
Shares related to the automaking and textile industries were among those leading the rally, while heavyweight sectors, including shipping, gold and securities, dragged the index down into negative territory.
A number of shares in the shipping sector dipped more than 4 percent during the trading day on Friday, with COSCO Shipping Co., Ltd. dropping by 5.53 percent to close at 7.01 yuan.
Partially driven by the opening of the 14th Guangzhou Auto Expo, automaking-related stocks rallied. Suzhou Shijia Science & Technology Inc. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent.
The Chinese currency continued to weaken against the U.S. dollar on Friday, with the central parity rate of the yuan weakened 104 basis points to 6.8796 against the U.S. dollar.
Analysts attributed the weakness to a strong U.S. dollar as the dollar index is still hovering near a 13-year high against a basket of currencies.
A raft of data showed the stabilizing economy has helped in avoiding the kind of stock meltdown seen last year, even as the yuan repeatedly hit 8-year lows this week.
