Update | Chinese stocks battle back to end up, Hong Kong shares in the red by the close
Shanghai nudges higher and Shenzhen settles 1 per cent up
Mainland Chinese stocks rose on Wednesday, a rare bright spot in regional markets, after mainland media reports late on Tuesday said the authorities had injected billions of dollars into its three policy lenders to spur economic growth.
The Shanghai Composite Index recovered from afternoon weakness to post its fifth consecutive daily gain, rising 0.22 per cent to close at 4,026.70. The tech-heavy Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.01 per cent to 2,287.98 and the Nasdaq-style ChiNext board added 0.5 per cent to 2,897.37.
Turnover on the mainland’s two bourses improved to 1.28 trillion yuan, up from 1.21 trillion yuan on Tuesday.
The People’s Bank of China had injected US$48 billion into China Development Bank and US$45 billion into Export-Import Bank of China, the Caixin business news outlet reported. Other mainland media reported separately that the Ministry of Finance had injected 100 billion yuan (US$16 billion) into the Agricultural Development Bank of China.
Despite the latest market-boosting measures, all major lenders, insurance companies and brokerage firms finished down on Wednesday. In addition to injecting capital into lenders, the mainland central bank previously pledged to provide liquidity to the mainland’s only provider of margin financing loan services, which was seen as a rare endorsement for retail investors to borrow money to buy and sell stocks.
Shares in oil majors were mixed. PetroChina rose 1.11 per cent to 13.63 yuan, while Sinopec fell 0.57 per cent to 6.99 yuan.
