China shares end at five-week high on brokerages boost, PBOC injections

SHANGHAI: China shares closed at their highest in more than a month on Monday after the central bank injected fresh funds into the country's financial system, with securities firms rallying on hopes for a lift from capital market reforms.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 2.34pc at 3,438.80 and the blue-chip CSI300 index added 2.35pc.

Both indexes notched their highest closes since July 13.

The financial sector sub-index ended 3.58pc higher, propelled by securities firms, which gained 5.07pc.

Brokerages' shares rose after Shenzhen Stock Exchange said on Friday that the first batch of companies registered for listing on Shenzhen's ChiNext start-up board under a revamped initial public offering system will make their debuts on Aug. 24.

Further bolstering sentiment, China's central bank issued medium-term loans worth 700 billion yuan ($100.86 billion) to financial institutions on Monday, rolling over 550 billion yuan of such loans maturing in August and injecting a further 150 billion.

It left borrowing costs unchanged.

The smaller Shenzhen index ended up 1.92pc and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was 1.04pc higher.

Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.24pc, while Japan's Nikkei index closed down 0.83pc.

At 07:17 GMT, the yuan was quoted at 6.939 per US dollar, 0.16pc firmer than the previous close of 6.9501.

So far this year, the Shanghai stock index is up 12.7pc and the CSI300 has risen 17.5pc, while China's H-share index listed in Hong Kong is down 6.7pc.

Shanghai stocks have risen 3.89pc this month.