China's stock short-selling pilot program saw 45 deals on its first trading day on Thursday, with a transaction value of 8.8 million yuan ($1.40 million), China Securities Finance Corp Ltd said.

About 712,000 stocks from 30 listed companies were short sold.

In terms of the transaction value, 59 percent of the deals came from the Shanghai stock exchange, while 41 percent came from the Shenzhen stock exchange.

The Bank of China borrowed 100,000 stocks on Thursday, the highest number, followed by China Merchants Bank and GF Securities Co Ltd.

China Securities Finance said it would take in 11 securities companies into the pilot program, including Citic Securities Co Ltd and Everbright Securities Co Ltd. It also plans to expand the number of financial institutional participants at a later stage.

The move signals the start of the bi-directional stock trading system in the A-share market, and the beginning of an era of short selling on the mainland stock market.