BEIJING, March 5 -- Chinese shares closed lower on Thursday as a downward trend continued putting pressure on heavyweight stocks.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.95 to finish at 3,248.48 points. The Shenzhen Component Index lost 0.76 percent to close at 11,566.39 points.

"The main causes for the bearish stock market performance lie in the downward trend of the Chinese economy as well as upcoming IPOs next week," said Gao Xiang, an analyst with CITIC Securities.

Weakening growth trends added pressure on heavyweight stocks such as those in the real estate and financial sectors.

Citic Securities Co. Ltd. lost 0.32 percent to close at 28.28 yuan per share, while China Minsheng Banking Corp. lost 2.34 percent to end at 8.75 yuan (1.42 U.S. dollars).

Poly Real Estate Group Co., China's second largest property developer by market value, saw a decline of 2.92 percent to end at 9.3 yuan per share.

China lowered its economic growth target to 7 percent in 2015, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Li Keqiangat the parliament's annual session. The target is lower than the goal of around 7.5 percent in 2014, and is also lower than the 7.4-percent economic growth rate registered in 2014, its weakest annual expansion since 1990.

"The upcoming round of initial public offerings (IPO) announced by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) also hurt market sentiment as investors worry that the new round of stock offers could take away funds from the existing market," Gao said.

Bucking the trend, stocks related to railway construction, technology and medicine continued to rally thanks to market expectations for China's economic restructuring.

The ChiNext Index, China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.25 percent to end at 2,014.79 points.