Liquor firms help raise stock market cheer

The stock market ended higher on Thursday, boosted by the strong performance of home appliance makers, liquor firms and biomedicine companies.

The A-share market opened lower following an overnight plunge on Wall Street as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the West. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.11 percent to close at 3,272.73.

The smaller Shenzhen Component Index rose 0.98 percent to finish at around 13,519.66, while the ChiNext Index surged 1.10 percent to end its trading day at 2,699.92.

Combined turnover on the two bourses came to 780.2 billion yuan (US$116.2 billion), compared with 733.1 billion yuan in the previous session.

More than half of sectors gained, with home appliance makers, liquor firms and biomedicine companies making major contributions to the rise.

The shares of China's leading liquor producer, Wuliangye Yibin Co Ltd, rose 4.18 percent to close at 250 yuan per share.

The increase in coronavirus cases in the US and across Europe may continue to weigh on investor sentiment in Asia-Pacific area, analysts said.

Although many European countries have tightened anti-epidemic measures, UBS said it believes the impact of the new wave of restrictions will be less than that in the first half of the year.

It said the optimism could be mainly attributed to consumers and enterprises adapting to anti-epidemic measures and many countries continuing to provide financial support or unemployment assistance. There are also 10 possible vaccines that have entered the late stage of trials, it noted.