Chinese stocks closed slightly lower on Friday but secured weekly gains of around 2 percent, with rare earth and chip sectors advancing on hopes for upcoming China-U.S. trade talks in Madrid, according to a market analyst.
Chinese stocks closed lower on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.12 percent to 3,870.60 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.43 percent lower at 12,924.13 points. The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 1.09 percent to close at 3,020.42 points.
Market analyst Timothy Pope highlighted the trends behind the numbers in his recap of China's stock market performance on Friday and over the week.
"The Shanghai Composite Index touch another decade high this morning before the index eased back a little bit. The index actually closed fractionally lower. The investors do seem a little bit hesitant to push it too quickly towards 3,900 points and then perhaps on to 4,000. But the A-share markets are ending the week with gains in the region of 2 percent, marking a pretty strong recovery from last week's sell-off. Analysts say we're looking at a bit of consolidation period at the moment, a bit of profit taking and a bit more of a wait-and-see mentality ahead of some perhaps more clear signs on the economic and policy front," he said.
"One thing that investors really are now awaiting is the outcome of a fresh round of trade talks which are reported to be taking place next week in Madrid between China and the U.S. If they do go ahead, we can expect more than just trade to be on the agenda as well, probably a wide range of economic and security issues are likely to come up there. And hopes on that front gave a boost to Chinese rare earth stocks today. They were among the best performing sectors and a sub-index indeed tracking those stocks gained 2.7 percent in Shanghai. There were a lot of chip sector stocks doing very well today too on Shanghai's STAR market as a result of some of the announcements that we've seen in that space today," he added.
Analyst recaps Chinese stock market performance this week
