China's stocks gain, small-caps up

Chinese shares rallied on Monday boosted by heavyweights. But analysts began to put more bet on the future of small caps with more growth potential.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index (SCI) gained 0.94 percent to close at 3,383.18, after a roller-coaster performance.The Shenzhen Component Index went more briskly, closing 2.19 percent higher at 11,686.97.

Total turnover on the two bourses shrank moderately to 643.45 billion yuan (104.82 billion U.S. dollars).

The rise of the SCI was mainly attributed to two of China's major oil producers. PetroChina gained 2.11 percent to end at 13.09 yuan and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation closed at 6.67 yuan, up 1.06 percent.

In contrast with the volatile SCI, the Shenzhen's index was more stable, rising steadily throughout the whole day.

Li Hai, analyst from CITIC Securities, said unlike the SCI which was more reliant on heavyweights, the Shenzhen's index was helped by robust small-caps on Monday and would be stronger as the appeal for a link between exchanges of Shenzhen and Hong Kong went high.

YD Investment Consulting also said the two boards rose stably and outperformed the main board in recent days in a research note.

Li said small-caps would bring more opportunities to investors in the future, citing the ChiNext Board and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Board had already hitting new high.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, set a new record of 1,744.08 points on Jan. 22.

However, banks and brokerages, previously eye-catching sectors, were today's major losers, even dragging down the SCI by around 1 percent in the middle of the trading day.

Guosen Securities lost 2.84 percent to finish at 22.93 yuan per share and Sealand Securities shed 2.47 percent to end at 16.2 yuan per share

Bank of Communications and Bank of China, two of the country's largest banks, declined 1.46 percent and 1.24 percent respectively.