Photo taken on April 1, 2009 shows a woman smiles before a stock price electronic board in Beijing. China's benchmark composite stock index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed at 2408 points on Tuesday. [Xinhua]

Chinese equities closed 1.47 percent up Wednesday to stand at 2,408.02 points, surpassing the 2,400 points mark, echoing the overnight Wall Street rebound.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 34.81 points, or 1.47 percent to 2,408.02. The Shenzhen Component Index rose 174.06 points, or 1.94 percent to 9,156.01.

Gains outnumbered losses by 675 to 183 in Shanghai and 599 to 140 in Shenzhen.

Combined turnover expanded to 250.67 billion yuan (36.68 billion U.S. dollars) from 200.03 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

Coal shares boosted the index up, as there were reports Monday that the government might consider raising the coal price by 4 percent.

China Shenhua Energy, the country's leading coal producer, gained 5.8 percent to 21.9 yuan, while China Coal jumped 5.65 percent to 9.17 yuan.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index continued the upward trend of the previous trading day and touched a 2422.63 points intra-day high Wednesday, exceeding the previous intra-day high of 2402 points on Feb. 17.

Zhang Yunpeng, an analyst with Beijing-based Huarong Securities, said investors should not be overly optimistic about the continuing rebound, as the turnover in recent days was lower than that in mid-February, which suggested that some investors were still cautious.

China's top banking regulator Liu Mingkang said Tuesday the government would require foreign banks taking stakes in domestic commercial banks to hold those stakes for at least five years, rather than three as at present, to reduce risks for local banks.

Zhang said this was a piece of positive news for Chinese bank stocks for the long run, as this move would help stabilize their share prices.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China's top lender, rose 0.76 percent to 3.97, while the China Construction Bank, the country's second largest commercial lender, gained 0.47 percent to 4.32 yuan.

Chongqing Iron and Steel Co. rose 1.24 percent to 4.91 yuan, after the steel producer reported a 33.18 percent growth in net profit to 598.3 million yuan last year in its annual report released Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2009)