Shares rise, but investors cautious

Mainland stock exchanges rose for a third straight day on Wednesday after the central bank vowed to support economic growth, but investors were reluctant to chase stocks too high on concerns that the rebound was due to technical factors and may be short-lived.

The People's Bank of China made clear on Tuesday it was ready to fight any downturn in the world's second-largest economy, but said it would avoid "pumping out" too much cash.

The comments reinforced expectations that more policy easing is on the cards. Such a view has helped fuel a stock market surge of nearly 30 percent in the last few months, though the rally has shown signs of flagging in recent weeks as more firms issue profit warnings.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index nudged up by 0.51 percent or 16.11 points to 3,157.70 points on Wednesday. The Shenzhen Component Index rose by 1.16 percent or 129.01 points to 11,285.63 points.

The CSI 300 Index of the biggest companies traded on the bourses in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed up by 0.80 percent or 27.18 points at 3,434.12.

Total turnover on the two bourses was 412.03 billion yuan ($65.98 billion), up from the previous trading day's 400.52 billion yuan.

Although the market expects fresh monetary easing measures - China International Capital Corp forecast another interest rate reduction and three more reserve requirement ratio cuts - analysts said they are aimed at bolstering the economy, rather than the stock market.

In a sign of waning interest in stocks, the number of new trading accounts opened last week totaled 384,800, down nearly 20 percent from the previous week, according to the China Securities Journal.

ChiNext, China's NASDAQ-style board for high-tech and fast-growing start-ups, rose by 1.44 percent or 25.17 points to 1,772.85 points.