Live | China Markets Live - Shanghai and Shenzhen finish higher, Hong Kong up 0.5 per cent at close

Welcome to the SCMP's live markets blog. The intense volatility of recent weeks has every chance of remaining the core underlying theme of activity. Investors are increasingly focused the broader question of how this episode might affect the wider economy as many suspect the equity bubble has yet to fully deflate. We'll bring you the key levels, trading statements, price action and other developments as they happen.

4:12pm: 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. 

4:11pm: 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.

4:05pm: 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. 

4:04pm: On both China bourses today, companies posting gains outnumbered companies finishing down by about 3 to 1. Across the composite indices, 1,741 were up, 564 were down and 598 were unchanged – most of the latter being suspended from trading. 

The banking sector initially performed well but tailed off and finished soft, investors taking profits as the Shanghai Composite Index crossed the 4,000-point mark.