Market gets confidence boost from combined policies

Chinese stocks surged on Friday, after a key meeting spurred market confidence and the nation axed stock transfer fees－the first such cut in nearly seven years－to lower trading costs for investors.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went up 2.4 percent to more than 3,040 points and the Shenzhen Component Index closed about 3.7 percent higher at more than 11,020 points.

Meanwhile, the ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, rose about 4.1 percent to close at more than 2,300 points.

On Friday, a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee stressed the importance of economic stability as well as securing and improving people's livelihoods, as the economy faces growing complexities and uncertainties.

Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University's International Business School, said the meeting, which highlighted the need to respond to market concerns in a timely manner, steadily advance reform of the registration-based stock issuance system and maintain the stable operation of capital markets, sent positive signals to investors.

He said reform of the registration-based stock issuance system may focus on the frequency of issuing new stocks. In addition, in order to boost the liquidity of capital markets, more measures may come to expand long-term investment channels.

The meeting's call for greater efforts to promote the healthy development of the platform economy could encourage more internet companies to seek fundraising in the A-share market, he said.

China has been stepping up the push to promote the stable and healthy operation of capital markets. Effective from Friday, the transfer fees for stock trades on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges were halved from 0.002 percent to 0.001 percent of stock trading turnover, according to the China Securities Depository and Clearing Co Ltd, the country's stock clearing agency.

The transfer fee for Chinese mainland shares traded in the Beijing market will be cut from 0.0025 percent to 0.001 percent.

The moves are intended to reinvigorate the markets through lowering costs for investors, and ramp up support for the real economy, the CSDC said in a notice on its website on Thursday.

Yang Delong, chief economist at Shenzhen-based First Seafront Fund Management Co, said that a string of favorable policies have been announced recently on boosting consumption, speeding up infrastructure construction, reducing reserve requirements and cutting transfer fees. "These moves have helped to restore market confidence," Yang said.

Zhang Wentao, a bank employee in Beijing who has been investing in stocks for five years, said he was very excited to see the transfer fee cut. "It is very good news for individual investors like me," he said.