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BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese equities continued to rally on Friday as September credit data beat expectations.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index went up 1.6 percent to end at 3,391.35 points. The smaller Shenzhen index advanced 1.3 percent to close at 11,374.83 points. The ChiNext Index, which tracks China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, rose 1.85 percent to close at 2,449.03 points.
Total turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses rose to 994.41 billion yuan (157.84 billion U.S. dollars), up from 825.9 billion yuan on the previous trading day.
The two-day rally came after the release of data on customer loans on Thursday. It showed higher-than-expected new RMB loans and indicated stabilization of growth in September. New RMB loans totalled 1.05 billion yuan, up from 809.6 billion yuan in September.
This week, the benchmark Shanghai index expanded 6.5 percent.
The market was also boosted by the central bank's announcement on Saturday that it will expand a credit-asset pledged relending program to more municipalities and provinces. Such relending allows banks to refinance high-quality credit assets rated by the central bank.
The move will not provide liquidity to the market directly, said the bank's chief economist on Wednesday, but it will be an important step to guide more money into local financial institutions, which have struggled to provide enough senior bonds as collateral to borrow money from the central bank.
