China's e-commerce logistics index gained for the fourth straight month in June, indicating a steady domestic demand recovery, industry data showed on Wednesday.
Last month, the index tracking e-commerce logistics activities came in at 114.8 points, up 0.9 points from May, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP).
Breaking down the data, the total business volume index stood at 132.9 points, a month-on-month increase of 3.1 points.
In terms of regions, the total business volume indexes of regions across China were all on the rise, with the western region reporting the largest growth and the eastern region's increase exceeding the national average. Notably, the rural e-commerce logistics business volume index reached 132.1 points, 2.4 points higher than May.
"E-commerce has played a significant role in promoting consumption. So the vitality of consumption is gradually increasing, and consumer expectations are also improving," said Liu Yuhang, director of China Logistics Information Center.
From the demand side, during the mid-year online shopping promotion in June, live streaming activities became more diverse and maintained a good growth momentum.
As for the supply side, e-commerce companies intensified efforts to meet the delivery needs of merchants and consumers, by means such as increasing the application of digital technology and providing customized services.
Experts predicted that the e-commerce logistics demand may slow down in July as the blowout mid-year e-commerce sales festival came to an end. However, driven by the rapid growth of consumer demand, the e-commerce logistics market is expected to remain very active.
China's e-commerce logistics index up for 4 consecutive months
Chinese stocks closed higher on Friday, due to stimulation from the newly-released US technology earnings, said China Global Television Network (CGTN) analyst Timothy Pope.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.72 percent to 3,832.26 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.21 percent higher at 13,578.93 points.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 3.06 percent to close at 3,343.96 points.
"The latest U.S. technology earnings have made Chinese AI stocks whipsaw over the past couple of sessions. Before we get into that, as far as the dust is settling, the Shanghai Composite added 0.7 percent today, the Shenzhen Component rose 2.2 percent and the ChiNext gained 3 percent. And those numbers just screamed technology rebound," Pope said.
"Yesterday's sell-off was absolutely brutal after we saw the results from Meta and other U.S. technology companies reviving concerns about the hyperscalers' enormous AI spending. The worry is that they may be investing too much, too quickly, without generating returns fast enough to justify that. That punished both ends of the market: it hit the U.S. technology giants because of the scale of their spending, and it hit their suppliers in China because it cast doubt on future demand. But then we got results from Azure -- Microsoft's cloud-computing division -- and the market grabbed at those like a lifebelt. Azure's revenue grew faster than expected, demand is still exceeding Microsoft's available computing capacity, and the company says its spending will continue. That is fantastic news for Chinese optical-transceiver companies, data equipment makers, semiconductor firms and memory-chip producers-basically the entire AI supply chain. And it is those shares currently underpinning gains on the Chinese mainland market," he said.
Chinese stock markets close higher amid US tech earning stimulation: analyst
