Shares see modest rise following tech rally, ChiNext extends gain

Stock markets in the Chinese mainland rose on Friday backed by a rally in tech shares.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed up by 13.28 points or 0.66 percent at 2,034.57 points on Friday. The index rose by 0.36 percent from the previous Friday, May 16.

The Shenzhen Component Index inched up by 57.25 points or 0.80 percent to close at 7,240.92 points, with a weekly decline of 0.02 percent.

Combined turnover on the two bourses on Friday was 128.00 billion yuan ($20.51 billion), down from Thursday's 143.47 billion yuan.

On Friday, stocks linked to the Internet, online security, electronic payment and cloud computing gained strongly while coal and aerospace stocks fell.

Langchao Electronic Information Co and Sichuan Troy Information Technology Co jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent to 27.49 yuan and 39.93 yuan, respectively.

Yunnan Coal and Energy Co fell by 8.28 percent to 9.86 yuan on Friday.

ChiNext, China's NASDAQ-style board for high-tech and fast-growing start-ups listed in Shenzhen, rose for a fifth consecutive day, jumping by 26.49 points or 2.09 percent to 1,296.00 points on Friday. The index saw a weekly gain of 5.67 percent.

ChiNext enjoyed positive news last week, including refinancing measures for the bourse, as well as more details of the number of IPOs that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is planning to allow this year.

Xiao Gang, chairman of the CSRC, said late on May 19 that around 100 companies would be allowed to go public this year starting from June, with the number of IPOs to be equally distributed every month.

The number is less than one-third of the 365 companies that have disclosed pre-listing documents since the CSRC announced a batch of pre-listing documents for 28 companies on April 19. Analysts said the number that will get listed this year is much lower than the market had expected.

The news came as a relief for investors, who were worried that a large number of new IPOs this year could divert funds from existing stocks.