Chinese mainland stock exchanges see modest week-on-week rise

Stock markets in the Chinese mainland closed on Friday with a slight week-on-week gain.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained by 28.15 points or 1.36 percent to 2,073.10 points on Friday, ending 0.79 percent higher than the previous week.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed up by 151.53 points or 1.92 percent at 8,048.85 points, 1.03 percent up from December 20.

Combined turnover on the two bourses on Friday was 162.2 billion yuan ($26.72 billion), slightly down from Thursday's 163.0 billion yuan.

The two exchanges saw modest gains for three consecutive days at the beginning of the week, before a big fall on Thursday.

The People's Bank of China abstained from injecting liquidity into the money market via routine open market operations on Thursday, but the squeeze in the money market eased on Friday, boosting financial stocks.

Also on Thursday, the market valuations of all 16 listed banks except China Min-sheng Banking Corp were below their book value, analysts said, leading investors to buy cheap bank shares on Friday and also lifting stocks in other financial companies.

The financial sector climbed by 2.42 percent on Friday. Shenzhen-based China Merchants Securities Co jumped by 4.53 percent to 12.45 yuan, while Beijing-based Hua Xia Bank Co rose by 3.54 percent to 8.20 yuan.

On Friday, shipbuilders saw a strong rise with eight companies in the sector soaring by 6.30 percent on average. Beijing-based China State Shipbuilding Co surged by the 10 percent daily limit to 24.06 yuan.

ChiNext, China's NASDAQ-style board for high-tech and fast-growing start-ups listed in Shenzhen, also rose on Friday by 24.77 points or 1.95 percent to 1,294.30 points. The index saw a weekly gain of 3.24 percent. Twenty stocks on ChiNext rose by the 10 percent daily limit on Friday.