Investors monitor stock price movements at a brokerage firm in Beijing July 5, 2007. [newsphoto]

Chinese stocks staged a strong comeback Thursday on blue chips, reversing a five percent loss on the previous session.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index soared 4.58 percent to close at 3,781.35 points after hitting an intraday low of 3,563.54.

Blue chip shares led the rebound. China Life surged 6.62 percent to end at 41.88 yuan per share, while the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China rose 3.61 percent to 5.16 yuan.

Other financials were also strong. The Bank of China went up 2.67 percent to 4.99 yuan, while Ping An Insurance of China increased 3.82 percent to 72.81 yuan.

Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd rose 5.26 percent to 21.01 yuan, recovering part of its 10 percent drop on Thursday. Sinopec followed with a 3.97 percent rise to 12.82 yuan.

The recovery came after China Securities Journal reported Friday the National Development and Planning Commission is considering slowing down the sale of State-owned shares to reduce the impact on the market.

Turnovers in the Shanghai A-share market expanded to 92.3 billion yuan from Thursday's 72.26 billion yuan.

Some analysts said the market is bottoming out, but urged investors to remain cautious, as the strength of the rebound is still unclear.