China: Stocks extend gains as small caps, tech outshine blue chips

[BEIJING] China stocks climbed higher on Friday as gains on Shenzhen's ChiNext Composite, focused on small cap and tech stocks, outstripped blue chip heavy Shanghai.

The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.9 per cent, to 3,635.15, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.2 per cent, to 3,376.50 points.

For the week, the CSI300 climbed 2.5 per cent and the Shanghai Composite rose 2.8 percent.

The ChiNext Composite climbed 2.8 per cent to end the day at 1,705.43.

The premium between dual-listed companies in the mainland and Hong Kong hit 133.62, its highest point since October 2011, as the markets once again moved in opposite directions.

Trainmaker China CNR hit the upper 10 percent trading limit, as it is viewed as a favorite to win a major Mexican rail project.

The CSI300 banking sub-index gained following the morning's announcement that the central bank would increase relending quotas to banks by US$8.1 billion.

The energy sub-index gained 0.7 per cent after the National Energy Administration released data that China consumed 3.8 per cent more energy in 2014 compared to the previous year.

Among the most active stocks in Shanghai were Bank of China , up 2.7 per cent to 5.00 yuan; Agricultural Bank of China, up 2.1 per cent to 3.94 yuan and Bank of Communications, up 5.3 per cent to 7.21 yuan.

In Shenzhen, Guosen Securities, down 1.2 per cent to 23.68 yuan; TCL Corp, up 1.3 per cent to 4.02 yuan and BOE Technology, up 0.9 per cent to 3.29 yuan were among the most actively traded.

Foreign investment flowing into Shanghai from Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 13 billion yuan of the 13 billion yuan daily quota.

Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 33.9 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 14.7 billion shares.

REUTERS