|
BEIJING - Chinese stocks staged a relief rally on Thursday after shaking off a five-day losing streak.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed 5.34 percent to close at 3,083.59 points, following a 20-percent loss since last Thursday. The Shenzhen Component Index added 3.58 percent to close at 10,254.35 points.
The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 3.68 percent to close at 1,959.49.
Over the last three days, 23.8 billion yuan (US$3.71 billion) of net inflows was seen flowing into Shanghai-listed shares via the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect Scheme, a spike from last week, when the daily quota was barely used.
Nearly all major sectors in China were up on Thursday, with healthcare and infrastructure shares taking the lead.
However, trading remained volatile, which some analysts attributed to ongoing "deleveraging" among increasingly wary Chinese investors.
Outstanding margin loans - money investors borrow to buy stocks - stood at 1.16 trillion yuan (US$181.07 billion) as of Tuesday, a 7 percent drop from the previous day, and representing the sixth consecutive session of declines.
The yuan had edged up against the dollar by midday on Thursday, buoyed by the rise in stocks, though the People's Bank of China set the daily guidance rate, from which the spot rate can vary by up to 2 percent, at its lowest level since 2011.
