Mainland stock exchanges maintain upward surge

The Chinese mainland's stock exchanges on Friday ended the first week of December with a 10 percent weekly rise, amid a record-high trading volume of over 1 trillion yuan ($162 billion).

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose for a fourth straight day, jumping by 1.32 percent or 38.19 points to close at 2,937.65 points, the highest level since April 27, 2011. The index soared by 9.54 percent from the previous Friday, November 28.

The Shenzhen Component Index moved up for a 11th consecutive session, rising by 0.37 percent or 37.45 points to 10,067.28 points, the highest since June 1, 2012. The index rose by 11.83 percent during the first week of December.

The CSI 300 index of the 300 biggest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen inched up by 0.66 percent to 3,124.89 points, with a weekly gain of 11.28 percent.

Total turnover on the two bourses expanded to a record 1.07 trillion yuan, surpassing the previous record of 914.9 billion yuan on Wednesday.

The mainland stock markets continued two weeks of winning streaks following the decision on November 21 by the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, to cut interest rates for the first time in two years.

Since the rate cut, the mainland's benchmark indexes in Shanghai and Shenzhen have jumped more than 18 percent.

Friday's rally was backed by financial stocks and heavyweights like oil companies. Brokerages on average soared by 9 percent, with 19 brokerage firms rising by the daily limit of 10 percent.

Oil companies rose by more than 4 percent on average while banks were up almost 3 percent on Friday. PetroChina rose by 9.88 percent to 10.12 yuan and China Construction Bank soared by the daily limit of 10 percent to 5.70 yuan.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board for high-tech and fast-growing start-ups, declined by 2.46 percent or 39.94 points to 1,581.91 points on Friday with a weekly gain of 0.70 percent.

The Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong gained by 0.71 percent or 170.08 points to 24,002.64 points on Friday, ending the week almost unchanged, with a slight 0.02 percent week-on-week increase.