Stocks close marginally higher in cautious trade

The mainland stocks edged up 0.35 percent in heavy trade yesterday, extending their winning streak to a fifth day with energy and resource shares gaining but the market remained cautious ahead of the release of key economic data.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended at 2536.056 points, near a fresh eight-month intraday high of 2542.540 hit late in the session.

Turnover in Shanghai A shares rose to 173.7 billion yuan from Tuesday's 161.1 billion yuan.