Chinese shares swing higher

Chinese stocks finished upbeat Friday following a series of swings, trimming some of the previous day's losses.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.95 percent to close at 2,767.21 points while the smaller Shenzhen index edged up 0.24 percent to end the day at 9,573.7 points, Xinhua reported.

The ChiNext Index, the NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, extended Thursday's weakness and closed 1.09 percent lower at 2,014.92 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses stood at 486.4 billion yuan ($74.44 billion), following Thursday's turnover of 666.5 billion yuan.

Over 50 stocks gained by the daily limit of 10 percent and nearly 1,300 closed positive on Friday.

Financial heavyweights and the oil sector performed strongly in Friday's rally and lifted the broader indices up, against pressure from the under-performing small-cap stocks.

CITIC Securities, China's largest brokerage, gained 1.62 percent to close at 14.39 yuan.

PetroChina, the nation's largest oil producer, stayed firmly positive and closed 2.54 percent higher at 7.26 yuan.

The markets opened cautiously higher on Friday morning, as sentiment remained tense in the wake of Thursday's deep plunge. However, shares climbed in a mixed trend during the morning session.

The afternoon session began with a remarkable ricochet following a sudden fall, and the market was dragged up to higher levels by heavyweight stocks.

Sentiment was boosted when the China Securities Regulatory Commission refuted rumours on Friday morning concerning the overall suspension of the approval mechanism on the ChiNext board by March 1.

The jitters were also soothed as the central bank announced on Thursday it would pump money into the financial system through open market operations, on liquidity concerns.

Chinese shares lost heavily on Thursday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index plunging 6.41 percent to close at 2,741.25 points, the heaviest one-day loss seen in February.