Shanghai stocks gain around 2% to stay above 2,800 points

Led by non-bank financial companies, shares in China’s equity markets made a broad recovery on Friday, with over 100 stocks hitting the daily 10 percent cap on price rises.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.91 percent, or 52.43 points, to close the day at 2,804.23, with non-bank financial companies leading the rises.

The rally marked the index advancing a total of 4.5 percent within the week, the largest weekly gain since March 2016.

Shares of non-bank financial companies posted strong gains, with Founder Securities Co Ltd, which engages in the provision of securities brokerage, asset management, investment banking and other integrated financial services, seeing its equities rise by the daily 10 percent limit to stand at 7.32 yuan (US$1.08) per share.

The smaller Shenzhen Component Index closed the day up 2.36 percent to 8,651.20 points, while the ChiNext Index, China’s Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, surged by 3.10 percent to finish at 1,456.30 points, recording an accumulative rise of 21 percent since last October.

More than 100 stocks registered the daily maximum for price rises and the combined turnover of the two bourses came to 622.2 billion yuan, up from 618.7 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Chen Jian, an investment consultant with Datong Securities, was cited by Caixin.com as saying that the recent rally of the A-share market has beaten investors’ expectations, thanks to optimism that more favorable policies will be orchestrated in the future.

Chen predicted that it is quite likely that China and the US will reach a truce through bilateral trade talks, which will be “a good thing” for the market.

Officials from the two economic powerhouses were reported to have kicked off a fresh round of high-level economic and trade talks in Washington on Thursday, attempting to strike a deal before a 90-day deadline that ends on March 1, according to Xinhua news agency.

During the talks held last week in Beijing, the two sides reached consensus in principle on major issues, and had specific discussions about a memorandum of understanding on bilateral economic and trade issues, Xinhua said.