Regulatory measures put stocks into a spin

Efforts by the Chinese regulatory authorities to clamp down on alleged stock trading irregularities have dealt a serious blow to investor sentiment, triggering a sell-off that has sent the leading indicator down more than 8 percent over the past three days.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 2.8 percent on Thursday to close at 4,112.21 points, continuing a week-long losing streak.

Turnover on the bourse sank to 540.2 billion yuan ($87.1 billion) from 716.5 billion yuan the day before.