Chinese mainland stocks closed higher Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.33 percent to 4,136.16 points and the Shenzhen Component Index gaining 0.79 percent to 14,439.66 points.
The ChiNext Index, tracking growth enterprises, added 0.63 percent to 3,349.5 points, while combined turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses climbed to 3.09 trillion yuan (about 441.88 billion U.S. dollars), up from 2.69 trillion yuan the previous trading day.
CGTN market analyst Timothy Pope said sentiment remains buoyant despite regulators' efforts to cool speculation, noting that authorities are seeking to discourage excessive borrowing while avoiding a sharp slowdown in trading activity.
"We saw the Chinese mainland markets manage to end the week a little bit higher. The Shanghai Composite Index added about a third of 1 percent today. But this week did see a couple of down days, and investors have been reacting to regulator and exchange efforts to try and cool down that rally, which really did gather pace since the start of 2026. This is quite a fine line that they're trying to walk here, discouraging too much speculation with borrowed money to avoid things getting overheated, while also trying not to throttle what is still very buoyant market sentiment. According to a note today from Morgan Stanley, it is working so far, the investment bank says that it sees some positive momentum continuing at least through the end of the first quarter of the year. And so far, there's no slowdown seen in money that has been switching over from bonds and into stocks and also out of bank term deposit accounts. Similarly, the big Chinese insurance funds are also continuing to pour money in, so the liquidity is still there," said Pope.
"Sector-wise materials stocks continue to shine, if you'll pardon the pun. Because those shiny metals are still proving investor favorites. Gold, silver and platinum producers are still big winners. All three metals continue to set fresh records today. We live in a time of geopolitical uncertainty and that has been really boosting precious metals prices globally and been good news for Chinese miners as well. Satellite stocks also continue to rise. These have been fairly consistent favorites among mainland investors since it emerged that a pretty new research institute in China had flagged some plans with the UN to launch a really stunning number of Chinese satellites this year. China Satellite Communications and China SpaceSat each rose around 10 percent today, but we saw AI stocks continued to lag. That has been a bit of a story of this week, as did banking stocks. Perhaps not surprising if folks are pulling their deposits to invest in stocks, as Morgan Stanley's analysts say," Pope said.
Chinese stocks close higher on buoyant market sentiment: analyst
