Stocks bounce back from earlier losses

China's stock market rebounded from early losses yesterday to close sharply higher, led by bank shares after US and European policy-makers said they would take fresh steps to try to resolve the financial crisis.

But the Chinese market, which had outperformed Asian markets as they tumbled late last week, underperformed them yesterday.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 3.65 percent at 2073.568 points, just off the day's high of 2074.468, after sagging as much as 3.45 percent in the morning. It plunged 12.78 percent last week.