BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shares closed lower on Monday amid heavy selling of big blue-chips.

    Market observers said weakened corporate earnings accounted for the sell-off, with worries about more lower-than-expected profit reports adding to the selling pressure.

    None of the top 10 heavyweights managed to rise.

    Sinopec and China Life both reported a year-on-year decline of 60 percent in their respective net profits for the first quarter of this year.

    As a result, Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, fell 4.38 percent to 11.34 yuan (1.62 U.S. dollars) on Monday, and China Life, the nation's largest life insurer, went down 4.12 percent to32.8 yuan.

    PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer was expected to release quarterly corporate report on Monday evening, and plummeted 4.26 percent to 16.84 yuan, while China Ping An, another leading insurer set to unveil first-quarter results Tuesday evening, dropped 3.46 percent to 64.7 yuan.

    Given the mounting rice prices, the agricultural sector performed in a robust manner with an average gain of three percent. Eight stocks from the sector, including Longping High-tech, Denghai Seed, Fengle Seed and Dunhuang Seed, rose by the 10-percent daily limit each.

    On Monday, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index ended daily trading at 3,474.72 points, 83.03 points, or 2.33 percent, lower than last Friday.

    The Shenzhen Component Index for the smaller stock exchange lost 322.45 points, or 2.46 percent, to close at 12,782.50 points.

    Combined turnover on the two bourses shrank to 161.2 billion yuan (23.03 billion U.S. dollars), drastically lower than the 260.5 billion yuan for the previous trading day.

    Losses outnumbered gains by 518 to 298 in Shanghai and by 426 to 227 in Shenzhen.

China records urban unemployment ratio of 4.0% at Q1 end

    BEIJING, April 28 (Xinhua) -- China had a registered unemployed population of 8.25 million in urban areas at the end of the first quarter of this year, according to latest data the ministry of human resources and social security released on Monday.

    The ministry said the nation's urban registered unemployment ratio was 4.0 percent at the end of the quarter. Full story

Hong Kong stocks gain 0.59% in quiet trading

    HONG KONG, April 28 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong stocks advanced 0.59 percent on Monday as investors turned cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's meeting this week on interest rate.

    The benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 96.39 points, or 0.38 percent, to open at 25,613.17 and widened its gains to 149.51 point, or 0.59 percent, to close at 25,666.29. Full story