Briefly

Chinese mainland shares close higher

Chinese mainland stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.23 percent to 3384.1 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.58 percent higher at 10203.5 points. The combined turnover of these two indexes stood at 1.29 trillion yuan ($180 billion), higher than 1.15 trillion yuan on the previous trading day. Shares related to media, entertainment and electronic information led the gains, while those in the food and bio-medicine sectors were among the biggest losers. The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 1.17 percent to close at 2048.61 points on Thursday.

Yuan strengthens against greenback