Chinese share prices closed slightly higher Friday as several pro-market information helped the two markets on the Chinese mainland reverse its falls during the past four consecutive days.

 

The Composite Stock Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, which comprises yuan-denominated A shares and foreign-currency B shares, closed at 1,245.65 points, up 0.04 percent, compared with 1,292.75 points on Monday at opening trading session.

 

The major index of Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the Shenzhen Composite Index, was up by 0.90 percent, to close at 3,213.51 points.

 

Total turnovers stand at 11.2 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion), compared with 11.7 billion yuan (US$1.48 billion) on Thursday and 14.9 billion yuan (US$1.85 billion) on Wednesday.

 

Dealers said the contraction of the total turnovers shows the markets have entered a phase of technical rebounds for a very short period of time as investors are very cautious despite their optimism for long-term prospects.

 

Major blue chips, such as Baosteel, telecommunications giant Unicom, Yangtze Hydroelectric Power, which took the lead in their falls on the previous trading days, rebounded slightly.

 

Prices of 697 shares listed on the two bourses went up, 440 shares were down and 129 shares maintained their closing prices of the previous day.

 

The major pro-market news reports include China's central bank's promises to encourage more legal capital to be pumped into the stock markets and that by the country's insurance regulator to raise the ratio of insurance capital for capital market investment to its total capital.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)