STOCKS ended see-saw trading with solid gains Friday, helped by soaring brokerage shares, producing the best week for mainland indexes in more than five years.

    Most economists believe it is not a question of whether Beijing will roll out more support measures but when, with many expecting both further interest rate cuts and reductions in banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRR).

    The central bank unexpectedly cut rates Nov. 21 for the first time in more than two years to shore up flagging growth.

    The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.7 percent, to 3,124.88 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.3 percent, to 2,937.65 points.

    For the week, the CSI300 index jumped 11.3 percent, the biggest level in six years and the SSEC index soared 9.5 percent, the most since February 2009.

    Small-cap shares underperformed Friday after the NASDAQ-style ChiNext Composite Index of mostly high tech startups listed in Shenzhen slumped 2.8 percent.

    Among the most active stocks in Shanghai were Bank of China, up 4.5 percent to 3.69 yuan; Agricultural Bank of China, up 8.85 percent to 3.32 yuan and Minsheng Bank, up 1.11 percent to 9.09 yuan.

    Foreign investment flowing into Shanghai from Hong Kong through the mutual market access pilot program took up 2.57 billion yuan of the 13 billion yuan daily quota.

    The total volume of A shares traded in Shanghai was 63.9 billion shares while Shenzhen’s volume was 31.2 billion shares. (SD-Agencies)