BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- China's share prices and the turnover of its two bourses both fell on Thursday amid uncertainty over further economic cooling measures after the release of strong first-half economic figures.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, dropped 0.44 percent, or 17.12 points, to finish at 3912.94 points. It traded between 3,887.59 points and 3,947.33 points points.

    The decline of the key index ended advances in two consecutive trading sessions. The index climbed 1.94 percent on Tuesday and 0.87 percent on Wednesday.

    The Shenzhen Component Index on China's smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange fell 0.39 percent, or 50.57 points, to 12,790.94 points.

    The Hushen 300 Index reflecting the performance of China's two stock exchanges closed at 3,807 points, down 0.02 percent, or 0.58 points, from the previous close.

    The gainers outnumbered losers as more than 900 of the 1,500-plus stocks rose in spite of the fall in major stock indices.

    Despite a series of macro-control measures, China's economy expanded 11.9 percent in the second quarter this year, lifting first-half growth to 11.5 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Thursday.

    Most analysts, however, forecast the gross domestic product to grow by around 11 percent in the second quarter as well as in the first half of 2007.

    The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 3.2 percent in the first half and jumped by 4.4 percent in June compared with a year earlier, well above the government's target of three percent for 2007.

    The huge increase in CPI would prompt the government to unveil macro-economic control measures sooner and interest rate hikes were imminent, said Wang Xiaoguang, an analyst at the Economic Research Institute with the National Development and Reform Commission.

    Anticipation of further tightening policy dampened investor enthusiasm. The combined turnover on the two bourses narrowed to 96.9 billion yuan (12.8 billion US dollars) from more than 120 billion yuan on Wednesday.

    About 59,400 A share accounts were opened on Tuesday, according to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Co. Ltd.. The number was over 300,000 at its peak in May before dropping sharply to under 100,000 in early July.

    Zhang Li, an analyst at Huatai Securities, advised investors to buy in more blue chips and those with low earnings as the markets were expected to continue to experience volatility in the short term.

    Financial stocks reported mixed performances. The Bank of Ningbo soared 140.54 percent to 22.13 yuan and the Bank of Nanjing surged 72.18 percent to 18.94 yuan on their first trading day.

    The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China edged up 0.37 percent to 5.43 yuan, while the Bank of China slumped 0.39 percent to 5.14 yuan.

    China Life, the country's largest life insurer, fell 3.56 percent to 47.45 yuan after it announced on Wednesday 8.9 percent increase in premiums income from January to June over the same period last year.

    Almost half of the real estate stocks fell with China Vanke, the nation's largest, dropping 0.68 percent to 23.31 yuan.

    Nonferrous metal sector rebounded as several firms announced on Wednesday the sharp increase in resources taxes on lead, zinc, copper and tungsten ore from Aug. 1 would have limited impact on their profit margins.

    Yunnan Chihong Zinc and Germanium rose 1.29 percent to 65.81 yuan and Yunnan Copper gained 1.06 percent to 38.10 yuan.

    The A share index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 0.44 percent to 4,105.07 points and the B share index rose 0.46 percent to 275.79 points.

    The A share index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange dropped 0.39 percent to 13,478.70 points and the B share index slid 0.56 percent to 5,728.59 points.