Chinese stocks close at fresh 7-year high

BEIJING - Chinese stocks rallied for the sixth successive day to close at a fresh seven-year high on Tuesday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surging 2.02 percent, or 97.1 points, to finish at 4,910.90 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index gained 3.38 percent, or 552.42 points, to close at 16,903.47 points.

The ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, rose 4.33 percent, or 150.32 points, to end at 3,618.23 points.

During Tuesday's trading, gainers outnumbered losers by 851 to 71 in Shanghai and by 1,345 to 49 in Shenzhen. Altogether, 397 shares rose by the daily limit of 10 percent.

Combined turnover for the two bourses reached a record high of 2.15 trillion yuan ($352 billion) during Tuesday's session from Monday's 2.03 trillion yuan.

A total of 14 military equipment-related stocks rose by the daily limit as China issued its first white paper on military strategy on Tuesday, stressing "active defense" and pledging closer international security cooperation.

The white paper, "China's Military Strategy", issued by the State Council Information Office, outlined a strategy unifying strategic defense and operational and tactical offense.

The infrastructure and communication sectors both climbed nearly seven percent on Tuesday, leading the bullish run.

On Monday, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the details of 1,043 proposed projects in which private investors are invited to participate through public-private partnerships (PPP). Focusing on infrastructure and public services such as water conservation and environmental protection, the investment needed for these projects totals 1.97 trillion yuan.

PPP refers to long-term cooperation between governments and private companies on projects that are mainly funded and operated by the latter and supervised by the former.

China is increasingly turning to PPPs to bridge a huge financing shortfall in infrastructure, which is considered a spearhead in the government's bid to temper the economic slowdown caused largely by the ongoing property downturn.