2 Minute Read by Reuters Staff Reuters, Shanghai, 30 June – On Wednesday, China equities finished higher, with key tech indexes posting their best quarterly gains in a year, thanks to Beijing’s policy backing and solid results forecasts. ** The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.7 percent to 5,224.04, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.5 percent to 3,591.20, helped by soft factory activity data that eased fears of policy tightening. ** Shenzhen’s start-up board ChiNext rose 2.1 percent to a six-year high, while Shanghai’s tech-focused STAR50 index rose 1.7 percent. ** The CSI300 rose 3.5 percent in the third quarter, while the SSEC rose 4.3 percent. ** ChiNext gained 26% for the quarter, while STAR50 gained 27%, both of which were their greatest quarterly increases in a year. ** Shenzhen Fine Made Electronics Group Co Ltd, Kingsemi Co Ltd, Sino Wealth Electronic Ltd, and SG Micro Corp all soared between 11 and 20 percent, while the CSI all-share semiconductors & semiconductor equipment index increased 4.8 percent. * Analysts ascribed the sector strength to Beijing’s policy backing in the face of Sino-US tech competition and strong first-half profitability growth. * Semiconductors, as a new type of strategic resource, will be critical to China’s economic development in the coming decades, according to BOC International (China), which noted price hikes in the semiconductor sector. ** China’s June factory activity dipped to a four-month low due to higher raw material costs, a semiconductor shortage, and a COVID-19 outbreak in the major export province of Guangdong. (Shanghai Newsroom contributed reporting; Aditya Soni edited the piece.) Continue reading
