China stocks rose on Friday, with both major benchmark indexes climbing for a sixth straight session, helped by gains for property developers. China's services sector activity expanded in December on solid growth in new business, with the outlook improving to a six-month high, a private sector survey showed on Thursday.
Another private business survey showed growth in China's manufacturing sector unexpectedly rose to a four-month high in December thanks to a surge in new orders. At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 6.65 points or 0.2 percent at 3,392.36, a six-week high.
The blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.25 percent, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 0.65 percent, the consumer staples sector up 0.13 percent, the real estate index up 4.16 percent and healthcare sub-index down 0.03 percent. For the week, SSEC was up 2.6 percent, while CSI300 gained 2.7 percent.
The smaller Shenzhen index ended unchanged for the day and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was higher by 0.38 percent. Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was firmer by 0.39 percent while Japan's Nikkei index closed up 0.89 percent.
The largest percentage gainers in the main Shanghai Composite index were Jiangsu Hengli Hydraulic Co Ltd up 10.01 percent, followed by Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd gaining 10.01 percent and Shanghai Shimao Co Ltd up by 9.41 percent. The largest percentage losses in the Shanghai index were Shanghai Jiaoda Onlly Co Ltd down 10.04 percent, followed by SJEC Corp losing 9.45 percent and Shanghai Jin Jiang International Industrial Investment Co Ltd down by 5.43 percent.
About 21.31 billion shares were traded on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 139.4 percent of the market's 30-day moving average of 15.28 billion shares a day. The volume in the previous trading session was 20.70 billion. As of 07:02 GMT, China's A-shares were trading at a premium of 28.25 percent over the Hong Kong-listed H-shares.
The Shanghai stock index is above its 50-day moving average and above its 200-day moving average. The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 15.24 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 1.9 percent.
So far this week, the market capitalisation of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 2.59 percent to 29.65 trillion yuan.