1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares close higher

Chinese stocks closed slightly higher on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.5 percent to end at 3,173.42 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index gained 0.33 percent to end at 11,302.73 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses expanded to 438.21 billion yuan (71.60 billion U.S. dollars) from 412.07 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Stocks related to transport equipment, telecom operation, smart TV, as well as hotel and catering led gains. Hisense Electric, a leading home appliance maker in China, rose sharply by 9.988 percent, close to the daily limit of 10 percent, to end at 18.06 yuan per share.

China Unicom, one of China's biggest phone companies, surged by 8.37 percent to 4.92 yuan per share. The surge was partly due to reports that the company will merge with its rival, China Telecom.

However, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) later said it was not aware of the merger, and the company itself also refuted the reports as rumor.

Stocks in aircraft manufacturing were big losers. Shaanxi Aerospace Power Hi-Tech slumped 1.83 percent and Avic Aircraft closed 1.55 percent lower.

CITIC Securities analyst Gao Xiang expressed confidence in the future, adding that the stock market is likely to continue the rallies as the week-long Spring Festival holiday is around the corner, and the IPO upsurge has also passed.

The ChiNext Index, China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.9 percent to end at 1,788.81 points. Endi