Chinese stock prices up 2% upon peripheral market gains

Special Report:Global Financial

Crisis

BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Chinese media) -- Chinese equities staged a mid-day reverse to close higher on Wednesday amid gains by other regional markets.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 41.38 points, or 2.03 percent, to close at 2,079.12 points and the smaller Shenzhen index climbed up 129.30 points, or 1.76 percent, to end at 7,490.29 points.

Combined turnover was 134.045 billion yuan (19.6 billion U.S. dollars), down from 151.027 billion yuan on Tuesday. Gains outnumbered losses by 806 to 63 in Shanghai and 698 to 42 in Shenzhen.

Stocks finished the morning session 1.16 percent lower, as fears over a worsening economy were sparked by a weak rise in the producer price index, reported by the National Bureau of Statistics in the morning.

But as regional markets rose on government economic-stimulus plans, Chinese stocks recovered.

At midday, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average was up 2.8 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 3.6 percent.

The banking sector was a leader among Chinese stocks, following regulatory moves on Tuesday to allow lending to domestic enterprises conducting acquisitions in China and abroad.

Industrial Bank rose by the 10-percent daily limit to 17.36 yuan, while the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank soared 9.05 percent to 15.43 yuan. The Bank of Nanjing gained 6.54 percent to 9.78 yuan, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China went up 2.77 percent to 4.08 yuan, and the Bank of China was up 1.83 percent to 3.34 yuan.