BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese equities closed slightly higher on Thursday, and ended the 2009 trading at the Shanghai market with an annual gain of 80 percent.

    The smaller Shenzhen market rose 111 percent in 2009.

    The figures indicate that China's stock market is among the remarkable performance in the world's major emerging economies, insiders said.

    Government's timely stimulus package and record bank lending helped drive up the gains which was in contrast with an annual slump of 65 percent in 2008, analysts said.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went up 0.45 percent, or 14.54 points, to close at 3,277.14 points Thursday.

    The Shenzhen Component Index gained 0.41 percent, or 55.5 points, to close at 13,699.97 points.

    Combined turnover shrank to 220.86 billion yuan (32.48 billion U.S. dollars), from 254.09 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

    Paper making companies and telecom stocks led the rise. The index for the paper making industry rose 1.79 percent and that for the telecom equipment sector was up 1.28 percent.

    Financial stocks continued to advance on rumours of the launch of stock-index futures. Citic Securities, the nation's largest securities broker, added 0.89 percent to 31.77 yuan. Hongyuan Securities ended at 23.80 yuan, up 0.93 percent.

    Statistics showed that more than 1,100 stocks, or 64 percent of the A-share market, doubled in market value in 2009.

    An online survey showed on the Chinese website portal Sina.com said more than half of the polled expected the Shanghai index to peak at least 4,000 points in 2010.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis