1st LD Writethru: Chinese stocks close mixed Friday

Despite opening lower on Friday morning, Chinese stocks regained some ground during the afternoon session helped by a strong rebound by companies related to the Belt and Road initiative.

Major indices were mixed. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index increased 0.13 percent to close at 3,108.1 points, but the Shenzhen index closed 0.06 percent lower at 10,872.71 points.

The ChiNext Index, the NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, was up 0.13 percent to close at 2,204.56 points.

Turnover on the two bourses totaled 536.58 billion yuan (81 billion U.S. dollars), down from 635 billion yuan the previous trading day.

State-owned construction contractors led the gains as China's policy makers vowed more measures to advance the Belt and Road initiative, a major part of which will be infrastructure projects.

Major railway builder China Railway Construction Corp. increased 5.01 percent to 9.86 yuan per share, while Power Construction Corp. of China rose 2.36 percent to 6.5 yuan per share.

The initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, raised by China in the late 2013, involves the building of a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along ancient trade routes.

As of July, Chinese companies have invested a total of 51.1 billion U.S. dollars in countries along the routes and signed engineering contracts worth 279 billion U.S. dollars under the framework. Endi