China's shares edged up 0.2 percent on Tuesday, led by large caps, but traders said the gains would prove unsustainable due to lingering concerns over Beijing's state share reform plan. The Shanghai composite index closed at 1,014.355 points, after setting an intraday low of 1,004.657 points, just above an eight-year intraday trough of 998.228 logged on June 6.
"But it's hardly sustainable, as there was no market-boosting news apart from that," Zhang said.
A People's Bank of China official told Reuters that they have prepared $1.2 billion to help kick off a long-awaited fund geared towards shielding investors from the slumping markets.
The index has dived nearly 20 percent so far this year, extending a 15-percent fall in 2004.
China United Telecommunications Corp Ltd, the smaller of the country's two cellular carriers, was the most actively traded stock of the day. It ended up 1.1 percent at 2.68 yuan.
Pudong Development Bank, in which Citigroup Inc owns nearly 5 percent, climbed 0.4 percent to finish at 7.92 yuan.
But CITIC Securities Co Ltd, the country's first broker to go public, fell 1 percent to 5.92 yuan.
CITIC was among more than 40 firms handpicked by Beijing to push forward an unpopular programme to sell down over $200 billion of government holdings in listed companies.