Chinese shares trimmed early losses and turned 0.1 percent higher at midday Monday, as investors looked for policy clues in Sunday remarks of Premier Wen Jiabao.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index opened 0.85 percent lower but reversed early losses and gained 3.21 points, or 0.14 percent, to close the morning session at 2,355.19.

The Shenzhen Component Index lost 1.32 percent at open and bounced from the negative territory to close at 9,603.81 at the morning break, up 12.85 points, or 0.13 percent.

In meetings seeking opinions on the draft of a government work report to be delivered at the annual session of the national legislature in March, Premier Wen said preemptive policy fine-tuning will begin in the first quarter but dispelled speculation of a loosening in government regulations designed to cool the property market.