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1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares end 5-day rising streak

Xinhua, February 15, 2017 Adjust font size:

Chinese stocks fell slightly to end a five-day rising streak Wednesday, weighed down by weak steel and construction material shares.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went down 0.15 percent to close at 3,212.99 points.

The smaller Shenzhen index closed 0.85 percent lower at 10,177.25 points.

Turnover increased to nearly 520 billion yuan (about 76 billion U.S. dollars) from 431 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Steel and construction material stocks took a breather after their recent rally.

The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style enterprises, lost 0.89 percent to close at 1,892.36 points.

However, both bank and power stocks gained 1 percent.

China Galaxy Securities analysts agreed that the stock market would continue to stabilize and put investors at ease.

The latest economic data for January, including on foreign trade, consumer inflation and the producer price index, all reinforced the view that growth in the world's second-largest economy was firming up.

The producer price index , which measures costs of goods at the factory gate, jumped 6.9 percent year on year last month, beating market expectations of 6.5 percent and marking a five-year high, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Tuesday.

The jump was mainly driven by the carry-over effect of last year's price changes and rising prices of raw materials, such as oil and gas in the global market, according to NBS senior statistician Sheng Guoqing.

Tuesday's data also showed the consumer price index grew 2.5 percent year on year last month, fractionally above market expectations of 2.4 percent.

The pace quickened from the 2.1 percent rise in December as the Lunar New Year holiday pushed up food, transport and travel expenses, according to Sheng.

China's monetary policy in 2017 is set to be "prudent and neutral" to keep appropriate liquidity levels and avoid large injections. Endi