China stocks ended higher on Thursday, with a sharp rebound in small-caps offsetting the drag from property shares and investor caution ahead of a flurry of new listings. The bluechip CSI300 index rose 1.6 percent, to 3,774.97, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.4 percent, to 3,617.06 points. Wayne Shen, Shanghai-based fund manager at Ivy Assets, said that in the short term, the market was under pressure from upcoming initial public offerings, but looking forward, the market was not short of money.
"There's ample liquidity in this market," Shen said, expecting some investors who fled to bonds during the summer stock market rout are coming back to equities because the debt market is already frothy, and risky. "Although there are few signs government stimulus has worked effectively to reinvigorate the economy, I don't think the situation would be worse."
Nearly all sectors rose, with tech shares leading the gains, while Shenzhen's start-up board ChiNext surged 4.3 percent. But property stocks corrected on profit-taking. The CSI300 Real Estate index dipped 0.2 percent, following Wednesday's 3.5 percent jump. Shen said that the rally in cyclical stocks, such as real estate, was not sustainable as investors were more interested in hi-tech start-ups, which represent China's future.
"It is normal to see a pullback in the property sector after the recent rally," said Gerry Alfonso, director at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities Co. The market is facing short-term liquidity pressure as regulators have said initial public offerings, which were suspended during the summer market rout, would soon be resumed.
Most bluechip sectors, including energy, infrastructure and transportation ended the morning session lower, but Shenzhen's start-up board ChiNext rebounded sharply, up 1.4 percent. Geely Automobile Holdings jumped 5.5 percent, after the Chinese automaker said it plans to concentrate entirely on developing green energy vehicles, eschewing traditional combustion engines and completely overhauling its product portfolio.
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