Chinese stocks close higher on buoyant market sentiment: analyst

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

Highlighting the "Future Energy" as a key direction for China's strategic emerging industries, the country's nuclear energy development, guided by its three-step strategy, has seen major strides in the past year, said a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

In a recent press briefing, Xin Feng, also deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), updated the media on the progresses China has achieved under the strategy.

"China's three-step strategy for nuclear energy development -- from the thermal reactor to the fast reactor and the fusion reactor -- was formulated in 1983 as a medium- and long-term plan. For the thermal reactor, over the past year, our 2.0 version of the Hualong One technology has been approved. This is a unified and fully self-owned intellectual property based third-generation nuclear power technology solution. And the Linglong One small modular reactor also successfully completed its cold-state functional test last year and is expected to be put into commercial operation this year," he said.

For the second and third steps, Chinese researchers and engineers have achieved milestones in the past year with the government support, Xin noted.

"Then for the fast reactor, last year, a closed-cycle system for an integral fast reactor successfully achieved preliminary standard design. We will continue to solve its engineering technology challenges. As for the fusion reactor, in 2025, with national support, we established the China Fusion Energy Company in Shanghai. And our Huanliu-3, a platform for conducting research and development of fusion technology, made a big stride, with an iron temperature in it achieving 117 million Celsius and an electron temperature reaching 160 million Celsius. We will continue to adhere to the development strategy and focus on technological research and engineering technology development," Xin said.

The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on March 5 and March 4, respectively.

The "two sessions" -- which refer to the annual meetings of China's supreme organ of state power, the National People's Congress (NPC), and its top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC -- are a key event on the country's political calendar and offer a window into the country's development direction.

China's nuclear energy development makes great strides with three-step strategy: CPPCC member