Chinese shares end week higher as battery stocks rally

Chinese mainland stock markets erased early losses to end in positive territory on Friday, with battery stocks driving the growth despite technology sell-offs, according to China Global Television Network (CGTN) market analyst Zhang Shixuan.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.05 percent to 3,813.79 points, while the Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.17 percent higher at 12,641.86 points.

Turnover of stocks covered by the two indices totaled about 1.9 trillion yuan (approximately 282 billion U.S. dollars), up from 1.68 trillion yuan on the previous trading day.

Zhang said the Chinese mainland markets had an active but difficult start on Friday, with technology stocks leading the slippage.

"China's A-share market staged a late-session recovery today, with both the Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component clawing back from steep earlier losses to finish in positive territory. Turnover topped 1 trillion yuan by midday, pointing to active trading despite the market's early weakness. Technology stocks led the sell-off, with semiconductors, co-packaged optics, optical communications and other AI-related hardware stocks among the biggest losers. Concerns about returns on massive AI infrastructure investments added to the pressure, following reports that OpenAI's annualized revenue was lower than previously reported," Zhang said.

However, according to the analyst, investors were not pulling out of the market altogether, but rotating from technology stocks to other sectors. This drove the STAR Composite Index, which reflects the performance of stocks on China's sci-tech innovation board, down 0.34 percent to close at 1,726.71 points.

"But battery stocks bucked the broader trend. A policy plan released by seven government departments in late September set out development goals for next-generation batteries, including solid-state batteries. That helped reinforce optimism about the sector's longer-term growth prospects. Several battery-sector stocks hit their daily price limits today. Kendal surged by the maximum 30 percent for a second consecutive session. Overall, investors appeared to be shifting away from high-valuation technology stocks and toward selected battery, materials and defensive sectors, against a backdrop of weakness in global technology shares," she said.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.22 percent to close at 3,043.33 points.

Chinese shares end week higher as battery stocks rally

A newly released Chinese documentary provides a rare glimpse into the country's crackdown on cross-border telecom scam networks in northern Myanmar, highlighting the pivotal role of technological countermeasures in the campaign.

Titled "The Demise of Telecom Fraud in Northern Myanmar," the three-part documentary was jointly produced by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and China Media Group, and was aired on CCTV nationwide on Monday. It reveals the brutal conditions inside telecom fraud compounds in northern Myanmar, where scams mainly targeted Chinese citizens.

The documentary unveils the covert methods used by fraud gangs, such as stealing China's communication signals to make their scams highly deceptive.

"For example, they secretly ran wireless bridges, cables and fiber optics to pull domestic network signals into Muse (town in Myanmar) for remote use, allowing them to pose as users inside China and carry out fraud," said Zhang Zheng, a second-level inspector at the Cybersecurity Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

According to the documentary, expert teams from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology worked with public security authorities to conduct a sweeping inspection for illegal equipment in key areas.

In just three months, they shut down 75,000 fraud-related mobile phone numbers and more than 4,000 broadband accounts, and cleared nearly 100 wireless bridges, effectively cutting off the communication channels between fraudsters and users inside China.

Chinese documentary spotlights tech in Myanmar telecom fraud crackdown