Chinese stocks closed higher on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.5 percent to 3,534.48 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.37 percent higher at 10,913.84 points.
The combined turnover of these two indices stood at 1.57 trillion yuan (about 219.6 billion U.S. dollars), up from 1.54 trillion yuan the previous trading day.
Stocks related to rare earth permanent magnet and lithium mining led the gains, while stocks in the games and photovoltaic sectors suffered major losses.
The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.34 percent to close at 2,277.15 points on Friday.
Timothy Pope, a market analyst, recapped Chinese stock market performance on Friday as follows:
Chinese mainland markets have actually continued to rise through the second half of the week, and are finishing up with gains. Today the Shanghai Composite added about half of one percent.
There's been a big injection of confidence after the State Council added its voice to statements saying the government is going to crack down on the price wars which have erupted in several sectors of the economy. The rhetoric against irrational price competition has gotten stronger really since the start of this month, looking at several sectors including steel, but the cabinet's comments on Wednesday singled out the electric vehicle sector. This, I think, is going to be welcomed by a lot of Chinese and foreign auto executives.
We've seen bosses at several Chinese car makers say the current situation is unsustainable, and just this week, the head of Volkswagen's (VW's) China operations told a German newspaper that the market currently lacks common sense and leaves companies with no cash to invest in the future. Industry groups have also raised questions about its effect on the supply chain and therefore, the quality of parts as automakers are going to get if they are pressuring their suppliers to cut prices, too. We saw stocks in BYD and Great Wall Motor were up modestly today off the back of that.
Rare earth have been a big mover this week as well. They've continued to rise pretty steadily. A sub-index tracking these stocks was up about 3.6 percent today, and it's up more almost 11 percent for the month so far. China Northern Rare Earth has been a big part of pushing that index higher. It rose almost 10 percent today and is up more than 32 percent this month.
Analyst recaps Chinese stock market performance on Friday
