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1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares extend rally Friday

Xinhua, March 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Chinese shares gained across-the-board on Friday as the real estate industry warmed and yuan strengthened.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.73 percent to 2,955.15 points, the highest in almost two months while the Shenzhen index ended 3.42 percent higher at 10,126.59 points.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, extended stellar performance to surge 4.34 percent closing at 2,177.87 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses jumped significantly to 817.2 billion yuan (126.45 billion U.S. dollars) from Thursday's 572 billion yuan.

Shares across industries registered gains with over a hundred stocks on the two bourses rising by the daily limit of 10 percent.

Technology companies were among the biggest winners, as shares related to artificial intelligence, the Internet of things and cyber security surged.

Friday's gain came as data indicated a strong recovery of the country's pillar real estate sector. New home prices climbed month on month in 47 large and medium-sized cities out of 70 surveyed in February, up from 38 the previous month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Housing prices in the country's biggest cities soared. New home prices in Shenzhen surged 57.8 percent year on year and those in Shanghai and Beijing jumped 25.1 percent and 14.2 percent respectively.

Market sentiment was also boosted by a stronger yuan exchange rate, as China's central bank set the highest daily reference rate in three months.

Onshore yuan advanced to its strongest level since December, also helped by expectations of less benchmark interest rates hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve this year.

The ChiNext Index, tracking growth enterprises, registered more than 12percent gains this week, as market expects a delay or drop of plan in the launch of a "strategic emerging board," which some analysts considered similar to the existing exchange for growth companies.

The texts related to the launch of such board were deleted in the approved 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020), a blueprint for China's economic and social development. Endit