File photo: VCG

BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed higher Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.49 percent to 2,897.43 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 0.13 percent higher at 9,362.55 points.

The combined turnover of stocks in the two indices stood at 469.6 billion yuan (about 66.2 billion U.S. dollars), expanding from 440.2 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 870 to 517 on the Shanghai bourse and 1,363 to 693 in Shenzhen.

Medical firms were the biggest winners. Kunming Longjin Pharmaceutical and Hunan Jiudian Pharmaceutical surged by the daily limit of 10 percent. Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine climbed 6.79 percent.

Financial companies also gained after the central bank on Thursday unveiled a plan on the development of FinTech. China Merchants Bank rose 2.63 percent, while China Life, a leading insurer, went up 1.73 percent.

According to the plan, the country will construct the framework of FinTech development, further boost the applications of FinTech, and realize the deep integration and coordinated development of technology and finance by 2021.

The ChiNext Index, China's NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.13 percent to close at 1,615.56 points Friday.