Mainland stocks closed down on Thursday, as investors took profits after a strong rally this year and rotated into financial shares.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index ended trading by inching up less than five points, or 0.019 percent, to 25,835.

Tech majors traded in Hong Kong fell 0.6 percent, tracking an overnight drop in their counterparts in New York.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 0.4 percent to 3,931 while the Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.76 percent lower at 12,980 and the ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, ended 1.12 percent down at 3,042.

The combined turnover of the Shanghai and Shenzhen main indexes was 1.71 trillion yuan, down from 1.73 trillion yuan on Wednesday. China's blue-chip CSI300 Index ended 0.5 percent lower.

Shares related to lithium mines and property management posted significant gains, while those related to seafood and organic silicon suffered major losses.

China's onshore shares are locked in a near-term tug-of-war around the 4,000 level, as a firmer US dollar index weighs on tech valuations, while profit-taking, softer-than-expected tech earnings and elevated position concentration add internal pressure, said analysts at China Fortune Securities.

The Shanghai Composite Index is up 17 percent so far this year, trading at 3,931. It rose above the 4,000 level for the first time in 10 years in late October.

Shares in onshore brokerages rose as much as 2 percent after China International Capital Corp said it would acquire two rivals, stoking expectations of further consolidation in the country's US$1.6 trillion securities industry.

Meanwhile, the CSI Bank Index gained 0.8 percent, with Bank of China up 4 percent.

Onshore AI shares opened higher before reversing gains, despite Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Wednesday shrugging off concerns about an AI bubble as the company surprised Wall Street with accelerating growth after several quarters of slowing sales. Semiconductor shares were down 1.4 percent.

The CSI 300 Real Estate Index rose 2.2 percent after media reported that China is considering fresh property stimulus such as mortgage subsidies.

China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged on Thursday for the sixth consecutive month in November, in line with market expectations.

Wingtech shares jumped as much as 5 percent after the Dutch government stepped back from taking control of chipmaker Nexperia, a Wingtech unit. (Reuters/Xinhua)