BEIJING - Chinese stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.37 percent, at 2,825.9 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.74 percent higher at 10,463.05 points.

The combined turnover of stocks covered by the two indices stood at 653.17 billion yuan (about US$92.6 billion), shrinking from 674 billion yuan in the previous trading day.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 861 to 509 on the Shanghai bourse and 1,394 to 688 in Shenzhen.

Companies in the sectors of rich communication services and cloud offices saw robust growth in share prices, with the Beijing Ultrapower Software Co Ltd seeing its share price rise by the daily 10-percent limit to 4.81 yuan per share.

Companies in the industries of breeding and consumer electronics led the losses.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 1.65 percent to close at 1,997.14 points Thursday.