Shares edge up slightly, gloom worries remain

Shanghai stock market rose slightly yesterday, supported by hopes for fresh official steps to aid the economy, but gloom over the economic outlook caused it to underperform other markets in the region.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 0.52 percent at 1964.374 points. Turnover in Shanghai A shares remained fairly active but shrank to 55 billion yuan from Friday's 73.1 billion yuan.

"The index is likely to retest the 1850-point level; airlines, direct flights and the small equities board theme are only able to cause short-lived rallies in related sectors, which suggests investor sentiment is weak," said Chen Jinren, analyst at Huatai Securities.