The Shanghai Composite Index rebounded 0.86 percent or 20.94 points to close at 2,455.80 points today on transaction value of 102.58 billion yuan.
The Shenzhen Component Index was up 1.23 percent or 126.74 points to close at 10,427.24 points today on transaction value of 98.89 billion yuan.
Both bourses opened slightly higher. Despite a slight retreat at about 10am, gains were extended in afternoon trading.
Top Headlines:
According to the China Securities Journal, a number of commercial banks had lowered the mortgage rates for first-home buyers  to the benchmark rates, compared a premium of five to 10 percent in 2011.
According to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, several foreign central banks, including the Thai and Korean central banks, were recently granted $300 million worth of Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) licenses. This brought the total number of QFIIs approved in March to 12.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the 12th Five-Year Plan for the shipping sector, planning  production bases in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze Rive Delta and Pearl River Delta regions.
The top 10 shipbuilders are projected to account for more than 70 percent of domestic output, and sales of marine engineering equipment are expected to top 200 billion yuan for a more than 20 percent share of the international market.
The Ministry of Finance exempted 28 types of core technical equipment, components, and raw materials from duties and import VAT, which will benefit the marine equipment, solar power, and LED equipment industries.
Of the listed companies which published their Annual Reports, 397 enterprises generated total 2011 net profit of 101.57 billion yuan, an increase of 28.2 percent. Cash flow from operations fell 37.52 percent from the 86.3 billion yuan recorded at end 2010 to 53.92 billion yuan.
Equity Movers:
Except for Southwest Securities (600369, 10.01, -0.497%), most of the financials gained. New China Life Insurance (601336, 29.96, +3.204%), Northeast Securities (000686, 17.29, +3.162%) and Ping An Insurance (601318, 40.65, +2.187%) rose.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398, 4.34, +0.231%), Bank of China (601988, 3.03, +0.664%) and Agricultural Bank of China (601288, 2.71, +0.370%) posted small gains.
Both Sinopec (600028, 7.55, +0.936%) PetroChina (601857, 10.37, +0.875 %) inched up.
Poly Real Estate (600048, 11.34, +0.980%), Gemdale Corporation (600383, 6.25, +0.644%) and China Vanke (000002, 8.52, +2.036 %) rebounded. China Vanke paid 15.04 million yuan to president Wang Shi last year, the greatest compensation among developers in 2011.
Coal makers surged in the afternoon session. Sichuan Shengda Industrial (000835, 7.89, +6.766%), Qitaihe Baotailong Coal and Coal Chemicals Public (601011, 16.03m +3.889%) and Zhengzhou Coal Industry and Electric Power (600121, 10.57, +3.122%) rose.
The surge in coal companies sent cement makers higher, and the top advancers included Sichuan Shuangma Cement (000935, 9.65, +3.763%), Jiangxi Wannianqing Cement (000789, 13.19, +3.289%) and Huaxin Cement (600801, 16.26, +3.042%).