CHINESE stocks rose strongly for a second day Friday, buoyed by a barrage of government support measures, but worries persist about the long-term impact that four weeks of market turmoil may have on the world’s second-largest economy.

    Over the past two weeks, authorities have cut interest rates, suspended initial public offerings, relaxed margin lending and collateral rules and enlisted brokerages to buy stocks, backed by cash from the central bank.

    Some analysts predict further moves to come from the People’s Bank of China, which often makes policy announcements over the weekend, such as another rate cut or relaxation of the amount of cash banks must hold as reserves.

    The frantic efforts to stem a market slide finally began to gain traction Thursday, when shares rose around 6 percent after the securities regulator banned shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling.

    The CSI300 index of the largest listed firms rose another 5.4 percent Friday, while the Shanghai Composite Index closed up 4.6 percent.

    “Chinese investors move in herds,” said Samuel Chien, a partner of Shanghai-based hedge fund manager BoomTrend Investment Management Co. “After panic selling drove the market down to the extreme, prices are now starting to move in the other direction.”

    At the depths of their slump earlier last week, shares had fallen by close to a third from their mid-June peak, and for some global investors China’s market turmoil had become a greater concern than the crisis in Greece.

    In the first sign that market losses could feed through into depressed spending in the broader economy, China’s automakers association more than halved its 2015 forecast for vehicle sales growth to 3 percent from 7 percent Friday.

    (SD-Agencies)