In another wild session, Chinese stocks on Wednesday finished the trading week mixed, disappointing those who had been expecting a mammoth market rally before the nation breaks for a two-day holiday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite index finished the day at 3,155.04 points, a decrease of 0.37%. Earlier in the session the index was down more than 4% before staging a miraculous late rally into the close, yet again.
The five-minute chart below tells the story.
SSEC Sept 2Investing.com
All sectors except financials and utilities closed lower, with energy — following Tuesday night's rout in the crude-oil price — suffering the largest decline at 3.25%.
The late jump in financials — finishing the session up over 2% — yet again suggests the government, along with the so-called national team, was actively intervening in the market to ensure that large-cap stocks finished higher before Thursday's V-Day military parade.
Lending weight to this theory, large-cap stocks outperformed their smaller peers yet again.
The SSE 50, made up of the largest listed firms in Shanghai, closed up 0.39%, while the CSI 300, containing top firms by market capitalisation in Shanghai and Shenzhen, inched higher by 0.11%.
The former has now finished higher for six consecutive sessions, its longest winning streak since late May.
While large caps staged yet another miraculous late recovery, small caps were once again left wallowing in negative territory.
The CSI 500, containing small-cap stocks listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, fell 0.76%, having fallen by more than 6% on Tuesday. Indexes with similar traits — the Shenzhen Composite and the tech-heavy ChiNext — slid by about 2%.
Chinese markets will are now closed for the rest of the week.
With no market gyrations to distract markets over coming days, all that's left to do is to enjoy the blue skies and Thursday's military parade.
Read the original article on Business Insider Australia. Copyright 2015.