2nd LD-Writethru: Shanghai stock index gains 9.4 percent in 2015

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 9.4 percent in 2015 despite wild fluctuations in the summer and a drop on the final day of the year.

The index went down 0.94 percent to close at 3,529.18 points on Thursday as investors were cautious over the impending end of a six-month ban on share sales.

The smaller Shenzhen index lost 1.75 percent to close at 12,664.89 points. The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, dropped 2.36 percent to close at 2,714.05 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses remained low, standing at 686.6 billion yuan (105.79 billion U.S. dollars), down from 723.3 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Early next month a six-month ban on share sales, which was imposed on listed companies' major shareholders during the stock market rout this summer, will be lifted.

Telecommunication firms led the drop, erasing the gains of the previous trading day. Datang Telecom Technology shrank 6 percent to 24.67 yuan per share. China United Network Communications dropped 2.22 percent to 6.18 yuan.

China experienced stock market fluctuations in the summer.

A round of bullish performance started in August 2014 fuelled by excessive leverage. By the time of the sudden collapse in mid-June, the Shanghai index had risen over 150 percent since August 2014. Total market value on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges hit nearly 78.4 trillion yuan on June 12.

But it started to nosedive steeply, and repeatedly, after it hit 5,178.19 points on June 15, plummeting by 43.5 percent from the June peak to 2,927.29 points on August 26, the lowest level during the market rout.

Chinese stocks will continue to rise in 2016 despite fluctuations, Shanxi Securities forecast.

Rich liquidity will push up the Shanghai index in the first half year, but the downward pressure will increase in the second half year, according to CITIC Securities. Endi