Chinese stocks continued to decline Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 2 percent to 2,768.02 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.5 percent lower at 8,780.56 points.

Less than 400 stocks rose on the two bourses, with combined turnover at 379.3 billion yuan (about 55.9 billion U.S. dollars).

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, was down 2.06 percent to close at 1,510.09 points.

Defense and military industry companies and home appliance manufacturers led Thursday's decline, while shares related to Xinjiang and Tibet surged against the falling trend.

China Harzone Industry dropped 9.2 percent to 7.99 yuan, while Bestway Marine&Technology lost 7.73 percent to 3.82 yuan. Shares of Midea Group, a leading Chinese home appliance manufacturer, went down 4.75 percent to 44.08 yuan.

Tibet Tianlu and Xinjiang Qingsong Building Materials and Chemicals Group both rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 8.09 yuan and 3.61 yuan, respectively.