1st LD-Writethru: Chinese stock market extends bull run

Chinese stocks extended gains on Monday with a surge of almost 4 percent on the ChiNext Index.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.58 percent to end at 3,222.36 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index gained 1.33 percent to end at 11,595.25 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses shrank to 541 billion yuan (88.4 billion U.S. dollars) from 563.8 billion yuan the previous trading day.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, surged 3.9 percent to end at 1,896.63 points on Monday.

Li Hai, an analyst with CITIC Securities, said shares related to Internet finance ended the trading day with outstanding performances and still have huge potential.

Internet finance companies such as Iflytek and Yonyou Network Technology hit the daily increase limit of 10 percent.

The communications sector was also among those experiencing increase, despite authorities dismissing merger rumors for China's telecom companies. China Unicom, one of China's biggest phone companies, surged by the daily limit to 5.34 yuan per share.

The shares of construction and infrastructure were among the strongest sectors. China Railway Erju went up 7.45 percent to 17.17 yuan per share, and Longyuan Construction Group climbed up 5.69 percent to 8.91 yuan.

Li forecast further increase after more policies are eased following the coming Spring Festival. Endi