Despite a sell-off in tech shares dragging major indices lower on Friday, strong weekly performance in AI-related stocks and policy hopes for real estate supported market sentiment, a market analyst said.
Chinese stocks closed lower on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index down 0.65 percent to 3,828.11 points.
The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.76 percent lower at 13,209 points. The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, lost 2.6 percent to close at 3,151.53 points.
Market analyst Wang Yin highlighted the trends behind the numbers in her recap of China's stock market performance.
"The mainland stock markets fluctuated in today's trading session. The blue-chip CSI 300 Index was down nearly 1 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.65 percent and the Shenzhen Component Index dropped 1.76 percent at the close, with more than 3,400 individual stocks closing down. Though investor sentiment remained upbeat somehow on growing confidence in China's artificial intelligence potential, tech shares retreated across the board in today's trading session, led by shares of computing power, CPO and high-speed copper cable connection sectors. In addition, stocks of online games, consumer electronics, semiconductor and AI application concepts also posted poor performances today," she said.
"But confidence in China's AI capabilities continued to strengthen this week, driving gains in domestic markets. Onshore AI shares outperformed this week, after surging nearly 70 percent year-to-date. Bucking the trend, real estate shares rose as much as 1.2 percent, after reports saying that several emerging first-tier cities are studying new policy measures for the real estate market. For this week, the Shanghai Composite index is 0.21 percent up," she said.
Analyst recaps Chinese stock market performance on Friday
Russia said on Thursday that its forces had carried out strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ammunition depots and drone facilities, while Ukraine on the same day reported attacks on multiple Russian oil refineries.
In its latest briefing on Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, Russian military forces had shot down a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet, while its air defense systems intercepted one guided bomb and 250 Ukrainian drones.
Also on Thursday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that its troops launched early-morning strikes on multiple oil refineries in Russia and carried out attacks on Russian military targets in the Donetsk Region.
Russia News Agency reported the same day that an oil facility in Russia's Tatarstan Republic had been attacked by Ukrainian drones, triggering a fire that was later extinguished. The fire did not affect normal operations of the equipment and caused no casualties.
Regarding the recent drone attack on the Russian presidential residence, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it had decoded data from a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) involved in the attack, confirming that its mission was to attack the Russian presidential residence.
The ministry later said the decoded data had been given to the U.S. side.
According to the statement, Russian forces shot down multiple Ukrainian drones on the night of Dec 29 in the airspace of the Novgorod region, and managed to retrieve a flight assignment file stored in the memory of one downed UAV.
The examination of the routing data showed that "the Ukrainian drone attack on Dec 29 targeted one of the facilities of the Russian President's residence in the Novgorod region," the statement said.
The findings were consistent with an earlier announcement by the ministry that Ukrainian forces has launched an attack on the Russian Presidential Residence with 91 UAVs. Forty-one of those were shot down over the Novgorod region, while the rest were intercepted en route, according to the ministry. An examination of the wreckage found that one of the drones was carrying six kilograms of explosives.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Dec 29 denied the attack, calling it a pure fabrication and accusing Moscow of using the claims as a pretext to escalate attacks and obstruct the efforts to end the conflict.
Russia reports strikes on Ukrainian targets, Ukraine says it hits Russian oil refineries
