Chinese stocks staged a rally and regained the 3,500-point mark on Monday, led by gains by securities firms and other heavyweights.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.51 percent, or 86.09 points, to close at 3,520.67 points. The smaller Shenzhen index rose 2.2 percent to close at 12,400.59 points.
The Hushen 300 index, tracking heavyweight stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen, surged 2.86 percent, or 103.26 points, to close at 3,711.32points.
The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 1.42 percent to close at 2,709.27 points.
Total turnover on the two bourses stood at 672.3 billion yuan (104.2 billion U.S. dollars), up from 632.9 billion yuan from the previous trading day.
Gainers outnumbered losers by 869 to 92 in Shanghai and 1,307 to 224 in Shenzhen.
Both the Shanghai and Shenzhen indexes opened about 1 percent lower in the day, weighed down by nine new share offerings and losses by peripheral markets and Wall Street in the previous trading day. The Shanghai index dipped below 3,400 points for several minutes right after opening.
During most of the morning trading session, the market fluctuated between negative and positive territory. About half an hour after the opening of the afternoon session, brokage firms began to soar and led the charge, bringing the Shanghai index up to regain the 3,500-point mark.
The financial sub-index, which covers 51 securities firms, major banks and insurers, soared 6.64 percent.
A total of 11 securities firms, including Guangfa Securities, China Merchants, Industrial Securities, Western Securities and Founder Securities, and major insurer New China Life Insurance, soared by the daily limit of 10 percent.
China Life, one of the world's largest life insurers by market value, advanced 6.5 percent. Ping An Insurance, China's second largest insurer, gained 3 percent.
Coal and nonferrous metal firms were also major gainers in the day. Nine nonferrous metal firms, including Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead, Yunnan Aluminum, Shandong Gold Mining and Zhongjin Gold, jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent.
Shares related to Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun, which suspended trading in the previous trading day after chair Guo Guangchang went AWOL to assist in an investigation, resumed trading on Monday and suffered losses.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) closed down 3.8 percent. Shanghai Ganglian plunged 6.4 percent, and Nanjing Iron & Steel lost 1.3 percent.
Fosun is one of China's biggest private conglomerates. It has pharmaceutical, real estate, private equity, steel and mining interests.
