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Chinese shares zig-zagged in volatile trade as traders gauged the effect of a fresh rate cut by the central bank.
Half an hour before the close, the mainland’s benchmark Shanghai Composite was just 0.17% higher at 2,970.13, recovering from early morning losses.
It had fallen about 16% this week, rocking global markets.
The dramatic losses and volatility in China have shattered investor confidence and led to sharp falls in Asia and the US over the past days.
On Tuesday, China’s central bank cut its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.6% in an effort to calm stock markets after the past days’ turmoil.
It is the fifth interest rate cut by the People’s Bank of China since November last year.
A rate cut will make it cheaper for banks to borrow from the central bank and will in turn make it easier for businesses and private people to borrow money from those banks.
The BBC’s Celia Hatton in Beijing explains that the move is aimed at a long-term effect on the growth of the Chinese economy, rather than at having an immediate impact on investors.
“They’ve already said they are not going to intervene on a day-to-day basis in the stock market, but they are going to focus their attention on growing the real economy in the long term.”
“They hope that this will convince investors that the Chinese economy might be slowing down, but is not in for a hard landing, and that this will over time convince investors and stabilise the market,” our correspondent said.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index followed Shanghai’s lead for most of the morning but then traded flat at 21,416.09 points.
Ananlysis: Carrie Gracie, BBC News China editor
The deeper problem is that now the year-long stock bubble has burst, investors are confronting the economic fundamentals.
China has embarked on a huge transition away from its previous investment-led growth model, and although the government warned that transition would be painful, the pain is already far worse than it bargained for, undermining the credibility of its 7% growth target and deepening political unease.
A dramatic devaluation of the currency a fortnight ago, coming on top of the summer’s bungled stock market rescue, has left Beijing looking uncertain and accident prone.
The stock market may well have further to fall.
Given China’s central role in world trade, a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy would be likely to reverberate around the globe.
Read more: The six Cs of the China stock slump
The stocks fall in facial expressions
Optimism elsewhere
Elsewhere in Asia, the region’s largest index, Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished 3.2% higher on Wednesday at 18,376.83 points.
The Nikkei’s gains come after a painful week for the Tokyo index, which had shed more than 8% in the past two sessions.
South Korea’s Kospi index was also in positive territory, closing 2.6% higher at 1,894.29 points, while in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 finished 0.7% up at 5,172.80.
Overnight, European and US markets saw another session of volatile trading.
- Wall Street’s Dow Jones closed 1.3% down, marking the sixth consecutive day of falls for US stocks.
- London’s FTSE 100 index closed up 3%.
- Major markets in France and Germany both gained more than 4%.
Read more from our experts:
Robert Peston: Why is the FTSE 100 shrugging off Shanghai Noon?
Duncan Weldon: What next for the global economy after China market woes?
Andrew Walker: How the China share slump affects the rest of the world
Karishma Vaswani: China counts cost of Black Monday
BBC