Chinese stocks end mixed; gains in property, consumer firms support blue-chips

Chinese stocks ended mixed on Wednesday, with the bluechip index recouping earlier losses to close higher, aided by a bounce in real estate and consumer firms.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite Index was down 7.18 points, or 0.21 percent, at 3,481.51, while the blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.47 percent.

The smaller Shenzhen index ended down 1.06 percent and the start-up board ChiNext index was weaker by 2.66 percent.

The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite Index were Maoye Commercial Co up 10.03 percent, followed by Guanghui Logistics Co gaining 9.94 percent and Beijing Vantone Real Estate Co up by 9.91 percent.

“The fluctuations on the Chinese stock market are mostly the result of structural adjustment, but financial institutions have begun to show wiliness to reverse such trend,” said Chen Yong, an analyst at Lianxun Securities.

Also, a troop of listed firms are expected to release their financial statements for 2017 which may also affect investors’ confidence, Chen added.

Chinese fund managers also boosted their suggested equity exposure for the next three months as financial and real-estate stocks surged amid easing worries over liquidity in early 2018.

About 20.73 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 105.8 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 19.60 billion shares a day.