China shares jumped 3.17 percent on Friday as increasing signs Beijing is supporting the market via reforms kept alive a buying spree among blue chips, helping the market end up for the fourth straight day.
The benchmark Shanghai composite index, grouping foreign-currency B shares and local-currency A shares, ended at 1,414.702 points, piercing the crucial 1,400 level. Sinopec Corp, Asia's top oil refiner and the most valuable stock on mainland bourses, was among the day's most active issues. Its A shares, open to select foreign investors, jumped 3.4 percent to 4.81 yuan.
The index has jumped 12.2 percent since Monday's close, when speculation began swirling that Beijing would take measures to help a market that is down 20.4 percent from early April - hit by efforts to curb credit and slow the economy.
Among a slew of steps announced, the cabinet will entrust seven departments to set up a working group to study how to drive long-term investment funds into stock markets, the Shanghai Securities News said on Friday.
Once implemented, insurance premiums alone would inject about 50 billion yuan ($6 billion) of fresh money into the mainland's bourses, which rival Hong Kong as Asia's largest after Japan.
The government is on the verge of setting up a task force to push policies under the direct supervision of the cabinet, senior executives at five major Chinese brokerages told Reuters. It would be chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao with vice-premier Huang Ju acting as vice chairman, they said. Analysts saw near-term resistance at 1,450 points.
On Friday, CITIC Securities Co Ltd, China's first trading house to float shares, closed up 2 percent at 7.14 yuan after the brokerage said it made an offer "at a premium" for the shares of same-sized GF Securities.
The offer of 1.25 yuan (15 US cents) for every outstanding GF Securities share is the latest twist in an increasingly bitter battle between the two firms in the first major market-driven acquisition in the financial sector.