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1st LD Writethru: Chinese shares higher, tracking U.S. gains on Yellen comments

Xinhua, March 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

China's stocks rallied on Wednesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 2.77 percent to close at 3,000.64 points, tracking gains on Wall Street after U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen signaled a cautious approach to a future interest rate hike.

The smaller Shenzhen index surged 3.48 percent to end at 10,445.69 points. The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, rose 4.47 percent to close at 2,248.78 points.

Stocks increased across the board, with electronics, telecommunication equipment manufacturing and Internet finance leading the gains.

Shares of Guizhou Changzheng Tiancheng Holding Co. Ltd., an electronic product maker, surged by the daily limit of 10 percent to 12.42 yuan (1.90 U.S. dollars). Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network Co. Ltd. shares surged 8.2 percent to 79.19 yuan.

In other news, stock exchange filings showed late Tuesday that Wutongshu Investment Platform, which invests foreign exchange reserves, had been buying shares in two commercial banks. The news also helped boost market sentiment as investors believed the so-called "national team" was injecting cash into the market, analysts said.

Total turnover on the two bourses expanded to 628.4 billion yuan Wednesday, from 537.5 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

Overnight, Yellen's dovish comments lifted U.S. stocks, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 rising to their highest close of 2016. The NASDAQ Composite Index jumped 79.84 points, or 1.67 percent, to 4,846.62.

Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, Yellen said the Fed needed to "proceed cautiously in adjusting policy" given global risks.

"Based on Yellen's description of the Federal Open Market Committee's neutral rate forecast, coupled with the actual rate of recovery in the neutral rate to date, the Fed is likely to raise rates just once this year [not the two hikes they expect] and no more than twice next year," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial. Endi