Chinese benchmark stock index ended little changed on Wednesday but trade was volatile as waves of profit-taking hit the market, while turnover swelled to the highest level since mid-July. Sectors that had been leading the rally, such as banks, saw heavy profit-taking. But infrastructure-related shares, especially cement, attracted buying.
"Today's market experienced strong volatility with 50 points between the low and the high and nearly 40 billion yuan of turnover," said analyst Zhou Lin at Hua Tai Securities. "The majority of small-caps are up and large-caps were in a correction, but overall it is still a bull market."
The Shanghai composite index closed up 0.19 percent at 2,041.355 points. Turnover on the Shanghai A-share market was a heavy 38.7 billion yuan ($4.92 billion) against 32.3 billion yuan on Tuesday.
Shares in five cement companies surged on the infrastructure theme, which first became dominant on Tuesday. Huaxin Cement Co surged its daily 10 percent limit to 7.99 yuan. Port operator Shanghai International Port surged 7.06 percent to 4.85 yuan.
There was huge volatility in many shares. Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology, whose CEO predicted rapid export growth in a Reuters interview on Tuesday, rocketed to an intra-day high of 14.85 yuan before dipping to a low of 13.60 yuan and closing at 14.00 yuan, up 0.94 percent.
Among large-caps, which led the rally recently but are now under pressure, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China dropped 0.76 percent to 3.90 yuan. Sinopec lost 1.83 percent to 8.05 yuan. Property giant Vanke swung widely, falling as low as 10.71 yuan but ending down 1.61 percent at 11.00 yuan.
The index is up 75 percent so far this year and investors are talking of the possibility of it reaching the all-time high of 2,245.435, set in June 2001, in the first half of next year.