Chinese stocks rallied on Friday, buoyed by a slew of policies introduced by the government to prop up the economy.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 2.88 percent to close at 3,087.53 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index soared 6.71 percent to reach 9,514.86 points at the close.
The combined turnover of stocks covered by the two indices stood at 1.45 trillion yuan (about 206.84 billion U.S. dollars), surpassing 1 trillion yuan for the third consecutive day.
Over 5,200 stocks ended higher - with those related to the energy and metal sectors leading the gains.
"The Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges continued their strong rally on Friday, extending the upward trend seen in the past three trading days. The bullish trend in the A-share market is gradually solidifying, largely being driven by policy initiatives. During a State Council press conference, officials from the People's Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission introduced a series of significant policies, greatly boosting investors' confidence in economic recovery," said Yang Delong, chief economist at Qianhai Open Source Fund.
In terms of market performance, stocks related to lithium batteries and lithium mining surged, while sectors such as securities, real estate, software development, and liquor also showed strength.
"Market trading volume has surpassed the 1 trillion yuan mark for three consecutive trading days, indicating a significant boost in investor confidence. Not only are domestic investors firmly bullish on A-shares, but numerous foreign entities have also expressed optimism about Chinese assets," said Yang.
China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 percentage points for financial institutions and lowered the interest rate of seven-day reverse repos by 20 basis points on Friday.
The interest rate of seven-day reverse repos, a key short-term policy rate, was lowered from 1.7 percent to 1.5 percent on Friday, according to the central bank. This drop is the largest in nearly four years.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, jumped 10 percent to close at 1,885.49 points on Friday.
Chinese stocks rally after stimulus measures
China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.
Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.
"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.
China's development never a threat: FM spokesman
