BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed higher on Wednesday as investors cheered global index provider MSCI's decision to include some Shanghai and Shenzhen listed stocks in one of its major indexes.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.52 percent to close at 3,156.21 points. The smaller Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.76 percent higher at 10,367.17 points.
Total turnover in the two indices shrank to 392.2 billion yuan (57.4 billion U.S. dollars) from 398 billion yuan the previous trading day.
The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, was up 0.20 percent to close at 1,824.69 points.
Global equity indexes provider MSCI announced Wednesday morning that beginning in June 2018, it will include China A-shares in the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index and the MSCI ACWI (All Country World Index) Index.
MSCI plans to add 222 China A Large Cap stocks, representing on a pro forma basis approximately 0.73 percent of the weight of the MSCI Emerging Markets Index at a 5-percent partial Inclusion Factor, according to its 2017 market classification review.
Since MSCI delayed the inclusion of China A-shares for the third time in 2016, Chinese authorities have taken several measures to ease international investors' concerns over the A-share market's accessibility: arbitrary trading suspensions were better regulated, restrictions on qualified foreign institutional investors were further relaxed, while the Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock connect scheme was launched to broaden channels of foreign investment in the A-share market.
Analysts estimated that the inclusion of China A-shares into the MSCI index might bring initial additional capital of 17 billion U.S. dollars to 18 billion U.S. dollars into the China A-shares market.
The MSCI inclusion is both a challenge and an opportunity for China's capital market and China will continue the reform to make it more market-oriented, internationalized, and governed by law and help it grow steadily, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
Water conservation, chemical, and airport transport sectors led the gains, while shares related with Shenzhen SOE reform and Internet security suffered the biggest losses.
