China's main stock index edged up 0.33 percent on Tuesday, gaining for the sixth straight day, but many blue chips were soft and traders expect substantial profit-taking around the 3,000-point level. The Shanghai Composite Index closed at 2,964.794, off an intra-day high of 2,966.194.
Gainers outnumbered losers 595 to 280. Turnover in Shanghai A shares was heavy at 88.2 billion yuan ($11.4 billion) compared with 85.2 billion yuan on Monday. The market continued to benefit from comments on Monday by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, who said recent stock price volatility was not due to macroeconomic factors and should not cause a major change in the market's trend.
"Obviously, authorities don't have a harsh attitude toward the stock market, which suggests there won't be strong government measures to dampen the market," said Zhou Lefeng, analyst at Xiangcai Securities. Consumer price inflation rose to 2.7 percent in February from 2.2 percent in January. Traders said this increased the chance of an interest rate hike in the short term, but a hike had largely been discounted and would not hurt stocks in the medium term.
However, the index's 14-day momentum has been falling for the past week, showing increasing caution as the market nears 3,000 points, from which it has tumbled three times since late January. So buying on Tuesday focused on second-tier industrial stocks rather than major index components.
The official Shanghai Securities News reported that the Shanghai Stock Exchange had proposed expanding the daily movement limit of shares to 20 percent from the current 10 percent. Among financial stocks, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China was 1.37 percent lower at 5.04 yuan.
Zhejiang Hangxiao Steel Structure Co jumped its 10 percent daily limit to 8.07 yuan, boosted by its announcement that along with another Chinese company, it had obtained a 25 billion yuan housing construction contract in Angola. The pharmaceutical sector was strong for a fourth straight day with Nanjing Medical up 10 percent to 11.24 yuan. The company said it decided to establish a biotechnology venture with another local firm.