CRI听力:Chinese Stocks Plunge Thursday Despite Favorable Policies

China's A-share market has seen another day of sell-offs, despite the government's attempt to shore up market confidence.

The Shanghai Composite Index has closed the day down 3.5-percent.

Nearly 15-hundred issues in Shanghai ended the day down the daily 10-percent limit, with sectors such as shipping, utilities, real estate and sports leading decliners.

The Shenzhen Component Index has seen an even bigger sell-off this Thursday, finishing down 5.3-percent.

The ChiNext Index, which is China's version of Nasdaq, dipped just below 4-percent.

The sell-off today comes despite China's securities regulator announcing a string of policies last night to try to ease market jitters, including a 30 percent cut in transaction fees and the relaxation of regulations connected to margin trading.

Market analyst Zhang Qi with Haitong Securities says the relaxed policies should eventually help.

"I think the government measures will have a positive effect. I say this because we feel this recent slump is just due to a lack of confidence. Everybody feels that there is a lot of pressure to stabilize the market. On the other hand, we had more stable trading this morning, but in the afternoon we saw another drop, it's a vicious circle."

The Shanghai Composite Index has lost close to 25-percent of its value over the past 2-weeks.

It nosedived 7.4 percent this past Friday, the sharpest daily drop since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008.

Meanwhile, led by casino shares, Hong Kong has seen its second straight day of gains, despite what's happening on the mainland.

The Hang Seng edged up 0.1 percent.