Mainland Chinese markets settled higher on Tuesday as steady buying in the afternoon session conspired to lift the market in Shanghai to a close above the 4,000-point level. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.64 per cent to close at 4,017.68. The CSI 300 Index climbed 0.13 per cent to settle at 4,166.01. The Shenzhen Composite Index closed at 2,265.10, up 1.56 per cent. ChiNext Index ended at 2,882.90, up 1.22 per cent. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index closed up 0.52 per cent or 131.62 points to 25,536.43. The H-share index gained 0.83 per cent or 97.62 points to settle at 11,871.54. “There was a lot of sector activity in the morning session but the overall market remained relatively calm, steadily improving. There was some selling pressure, likely by retail investors, when the Shanghai market approached the 4000 level,” said Gerry Alfonso, director at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities. Hong Kong trading was very quiet with just over HK$80 billion in shares bought and sold. China Mobile led turnover and made up more than half the gains on the Hang Seng Index, supported by China Unicom, Tencent and insurers AIA and China Life. The Shanghai-Hong Kong stock connect was led by Hong Kong investors selling off China shares totaling 2.587 billion yuan, while purchases added up to 1.916 billion yuan. China investors bought and sold just over HK$1 billion each of Hong Kong shares. The rise, fall and rise in value of major indices since the start of 2015 can be seen in the chart below. The Hang Seng Index (orange), H-shares index (purple), Shanghai Composite (green), Shenzhen Composite (red), CSI300 (blue) and ChiNext (yellow). China Mobile is 2.8 per cent up at HK$101, propping up the Hang Seng Index to the tune of 53 points, while insurers Ping An and China Life are leading the H-shares index. Chinese telecoms are outstripping the Hang Seng Index (blue) today: China Unicom (purple), China Telecom (green) and China Mobile (orange). See chart below;