Chinese stocks closed up on Wednesday as mainland bank shares pushed higher in the afternoon session.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 1.7 per cent to 3,360.60, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.3 per cent to 3,061.02 points.
The CSI300 banking index rose 6.96 per cent at close. It was up 5.81 per cent at the end of the morning session.
While the global stock markets are bleeding now, China is enjoying a good Santa Claus rally so far. Shanghai Composite is up 14% this month
— Gurumurthy K (@gurukmurthy)
Among the most active stocks in Shanghai were Minsheng Bank, up 10.0 per cent at 9.47 yuan; Bank of China , up 4.1 per cent at 3.54 yuan; and Agricultural Bank of China, up 4.5 per cent at 3.24 yuan.
In Shenzhen, Changjiang Securities, up 10.0 per cent at 18.49 yuan; Ping An Bank, up 6.7 per cent at 15.36 yuan and BOE Technology, down 2.2 per cent at 3.16 yuan, were among the most actively traded.
Foreign investment flowing into Shanghai from Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up 0.65 billion yuan of the 13 billion yuan daily quota.
Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 54.2 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 22.8 billion shares.