China's main stock index rose 0.57 percent on Friday, climbing for the fourth straight day after a plunge triggered by last week's trading tax hike. But banks fell, and many traders doubted the rally would continue.
"Investors learned a lesson in this week's plunge, so they will be more cautious. And the possible interest rate hike increases their uncertainty," said Tang Zhenbing, analyst at Hongyuan Securities, who predicted the rally would soon run out of steam. The Shanghai Composite Index ended at 3,913.135 points, off an intra-day high of 3,935.786. That left it down 10 percent from a record intra-day high hit on May 29, but up 15 percent from this week's low.
Rising Shanghai stocks outnumbered losers by 604 to 242. Turnover in Shanghai A shares was 177.3 billion yuan ($23.6 billion), little changed from Thursday's 175.3 billion. Traders said that since the market's five-day plunge, both institutional and individual investors had become much more confident that the government would prevent any crash.
This has encouraged buyers to return in recent days. The number of new A-share investment accounts opened on Wednesday was 206,000, up 40,000 from the previous day though still down from levels above 300,000 seen at the height of the bullrun in May.
Among blue chips, oil refiner Sinopec lost 1.62 percent to 14.58 yuan. Many infrastructure and industrial stocks were strong, however. Yingkou Port surged 3.59 percent to 16.72 yuan after announcing it would buy key assets from its state parent via a share placement worth as much as 5.85 billion yuan. Shandong Haihua Co jumped its 10 percent daily limit to 15.74 yuan after saying its parent group had signed a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture with US investment firm Carlyle.
Real estate firm Shanghai Shimao jumped 10 percent for the second straight day to 19.55 yuan after Shimao Property Holdings said it would inject 6.7 billion yuan worth of property assets into it in exchange for shares. Many other real estate stocks underperformed, however, with Wanke down 2.38 percent to 18.55 yuan.