Chinese stocks closed higher on Monday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.72 percent to 3,559.79 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.86 percent higher at 11,007.49 points.
The combined turnover of these two indices stood at 1.7 trillion yuan (about 237.7 billion U.S. dollars), up from 1.57 trillion yuan of the previous trading day.
Stocks related to cement and building materials led the gains, while stocks related to cross-border payment and the banking sector suffered major losses.
The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.87 percent to close at 2,296.88 points.
Timothy Pope, a market analyst, recapped Chinese stock market performance on Monday as follows:
The investors were very excited today about the start of construction work on the Yarlung Zangbo River hydropower project in Xizang. It's a monumental project, costing 170 billion dollars, and will be the world's biggest hydro power dam once it's completed. And at lot of the 0.7 percent gain on the Shanghai Composite Index today came from engineering and construction related stocks, as the capital market really cheers the start of work on that project. A sub-index tracking those stocks was up 4.3 percent. We saw Power Construction Corporation of China up by the daily limit of 10 percent along with a number of others.
And on the exchange in Beijing, the Hunan Wuxin Tunnel Intelligent Equipment Co., which makes machinery for drilling tunnels, was up by 30 percent. Those stocks really were on a roar today.
Rare earth stocks also continued their gains today with China Northern Rare Earth adding 6.3 percent in the wake of export data last month, which showed a sharp rebound in the export of most critical minerals -- this rebound was absolutely massive, it was up 660 percent -- after a deal was struck between China and the U.S..
Elsewhere, the markets didn't even blink over the People's Bank of China's decision to keep interest rates unchanged this month. After a cut in May, any change was seen as quite unlikely this soon. And attentions now will turn to the upcoming July politburo meeting which will set the tone for the government's economic policy for the next few months.
Analyst recaps Chinese stock market performance on Monday
International guests who have dedicated their lives to historical truth joined China's 12th national memorial event honoring the hundreds of thousands of victims killed by Japanese troops in the Nanjing Massacre during World War II.
The memorial was held on Saturday at the public square of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. China's national flag was flown at half-mast in the presence the crowd that included survivors of the massacre, local students, and international guests.
In one of the most barbaric episodes during WWII, the Nanjing Massacre took place when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital Nanjing on Dec 13, 1937. Over the course of six weeks, they proceeded to kill approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers.
Joining the crowd was Christoph Reinhardt, the great-grandson of John Rabe (1882-1950) who was then a representative of German conglomerate Siemens in the war-ravaged Nanjing. During the Nanjing Massacre, Rabe set up an international safety zone with other foreigners, and they together saved the lives of around 250,000 Chinese people between 1937 and 1938 from the Japanese invaders.
Throughout the massacre, Rabe continued to keep a diary. To this day, all his pages remain one of the most comprehensive historical records of the atrocities committed by the Japanese aggressors.
Sayoko Yamauchi, who was also in the crowd of mourners, arrived in Nanjing on Friday from Japan's Osaka to attend Saturday's ceremony, just as she has done almost every year since China designated Dec 13 as the National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre in 2014.
Yamauchi's grandfather was one of the Japanese soldiers who invaded Nanjing in January 1938. However, since first setting foot in Nanjing in 1987, she has dedicated herself to uncovering and spreading the truth about Japan's history of aggression and enlightening the Japanese public about their country's wartime atrocities.
In 2014, ahead of China's first National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre, Yamauchi, along with 10 other individuals, received an award for her special contribution to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
By attending the grand memorial event, Reinhardt and Yamauchi both said they hope to convey a message of remembering history and cherishing peace.
"This is my fifth visit to China, and Nanjing, and the third times I visited the ceremony. I have a wish that these survivors survive again and again and again. But my other wish is that the families of the survivors, that they transport the information, the right intention like their ancestors, because anyone must hold a hand (during) this remembering," Reinhardt told China Central Television (CCTV) in an interview before the event began on Saturday.
"Our delegation is on its 20th visit to China, coming to Nanjing to express our heartfelt condolences to those who perished 88 years ago, to remember this history, and to reflect on what we can do for a new future. That's why we are here," Yamauchi told CCTV on board the bus that took her to a local hotel in Nanjing on Friday evening.
Int'l guests call for remembering history at China's national event honoring Nanjing Massacre victims
