BEIJING, April 25 -- Chinese shares seesawed over Friday trade to close down 0.71 percent, pulled down by weakened market heavyweights.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed over 3,600 points during the afternoon session before it was quickly dragged down to end at 3,557.75 points, 0.71 percent lower than Thursday.

The government's announcement to cut stamp tax drove the key index 9.29 percent higher to its largest gain since Oct. 23, 2001 on Thursday.

The Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.47 percent to 13,104.95 points.

Aggregate turnover on the two bourses totaled 260.46 billion yuan (37.21 billion U.S. dollars), equivalent to the figure for Thursday.