BEIJING, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Bargain hunters drove Chinese equities modestly higher on Tuesday, with Olympics-related, real estate and financial stocks leading the gains.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.54 percent, or 42.60 points, to 2,803.02. The Shenzhen Component Index gained 3.1percent, or 286.80 points, to 9,525.66. The Hushen 300 Index, which reflects both exchanges, closed at 2,851.92, up 61.98 points, or 2.22 percent.

    Combined turnover was 75.61 billion yuan (10.8 billion U.S. dollars), up a bit from 64.49 billion yuan on Monday.

    The spotlight was on real estate, financial and Olympics-related issues.

    Nearly half of the real estate shares gained more than 4 percent.

    Among these, Chongqing Development, Rongsheng Development and Hainiao Development rose by the 10-percent daily limit to 6.12 yuan, 7.56 yuan and 8.13 yuan, respectively.

    Poly Real Estate, China World Trade and Yicheng Holdings gained more than 9 percent to 13.88 yuan, 11.15 yuan and 5.55 yuan, respectively.

    Among financials, Shaanxi Guotou and Yangtze Securities jumped more than 6 percent to 9.60 yuan and 17.87 yuan respectively, while Northeast Securities and Bank of Ningbo rose more than 5 percent to 21.05 yuan and 11.65 yuan, respectively. China Pacific Insurance went up 4.63 percent to 19.45 yuan and China Life was up2.63 percent to 25.78 yuan.

    Almost half of the Olympics-related stocks gained more than 5 percent, with some rising by the 10-percent daily limit. The latter group included Hualian Holdings (closing at 7.55 yuan), Beijing Tourism (14.96 yuan), China Youth Tourism (15.19 yuan) and Capital Tourism Holdings (21.12 yuan).

    Gains outnumbered losses by 776 to 75 in Shanghai and 637 to 72in Shenzhen, with 17 out of the top 20 heavyweights rising.

    But Baosteel, which is China's largest iron and steel maker and among the top 10 heavyweights on the Shanghai bourse, plummeted 7.83 percent to 9.06 yuan on reports it had accepted price hikes of up to 96.5 percent for iron ore this year from Australian mining group Rio Tinto. The hikes are nearly double those of 2007.

    Analysts at Jiangnan Securities said that although the markets seemed to have steadied after a recent 10-day decline, the overall mood remained sensitive to bad or even neutral news but indifferent to good news.