Shanghai stocks rose marginally on Tuesday with demand for small-cap shares countering profit-taking in blue-chips.
Analysts said the ChiNext and Shenzhen indexes outperformed because of the anticipated launch of a Shenzhen Stock Connect soon, which would give offshore investors access to Shenzhen shares.
China’s better-than-expected trade data in December did not have an impact on share movements.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen was unchanged at 3,514.04, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2 per cent to 3,235.30 points.
Among the most active stocks in Shanghai were Bank of China, up 0.9 percent at 4.44 yuan; CITIC, down 4.1 per cent at 32.17 yuan; and CSR Corp, up 4.0 per cent at 10.53 yuan.
In Shenzhen, BOE Technology, up 1.6 per cent at 3.27 yuan; TCL Corp, up 1.0 per cent at 4.01 yuan; and China Vanke, down 0.4 per cent, at 13.07 yuan, were among the most actively traded.
Foreign investment flowing into Shanghai from Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot programme took up -0.12 billion yuan of the 13 billion yuan daily quota.
Total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 23.0 billion shares, while Shenzhen volume was 12.4 billion shares.