Chinese stocks closed mixed on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.11 percent at 3,208.45 points.

The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.21 percent lower at 10,945.42 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.89 percent to close at 2,163.04 points.

Total turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses was 545.67 billion yuan (79.43 billion U.S. dollars), shrinking by nearly 80 billion yuan from the previous trading day.

Shares related to the country's Belt and Road Initiative led the rally while the furniture and utilities sectors were at the back of the pack.

The Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 5.05 yuan. Shanghai Construction Group Co., Ltd. advanced 6 percent to 4.85 yuan. Chongqing Gas Group Corporation Ltd. dropped 9.58 percent to 16.71 yuan.

The Chinese currency continued to weaken against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, with the central parity rate of the yuan weakened 100 basis points to 6.8692 against the U.S. dollar.

Analysts attributed the weakness to a strong U.S. dollar as the dollar index is still hovering near a 13-year high against a basket of currencies.