SHANGHAI: Chinese shares closed lower on Thursday, with healthcare and industrials stocks leading the declines, as investors looked past policymakers' vow to balance the need for stable economic growth and preventing financial risks.

The blue-chip CSI300 index ended 0.3% lower at 4,777.98, while the Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.4% to 3,312.50. The CSI300 healthcare index dropped 1.6% as vaccine makers retreated, while the CSI300 industrials shed 1.1%.

China's fiscal revenues grew 4.7% in the third quarter, compared with a year earlier, reversing a 7.4% drop in the previous quarter, the finance ministry said. Sectors that have made robust gains so far this year are seeing some correction on worries over their lofty valuations, said Fu Yanping, an analyst with China Galaxy Securities.

Market participants are also cautious ahead of the US presidential election, although Chinese investors aren't taking much action to deal with the related risks as the link between the A-share market and US equities has weakened, Fu said. China will strike a balance between stabilising economic growth and preventing risks, even as debt was allowed to temporarily rise this year to support the coronavirus-hit economy, the head of the central bank Yi Gang said.