China remains a calm oasis in global market turbulence over tariffs

Chinese stocks rose on Friday when markets elsewhere in Asia fell after a one-day global market surge fizzled amid continuing concerns about the China-US trade war.

The Shanghai Composite Index was trading up 0.45 percent, and the Shenzhen Component Index gained 0.82 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 1.13 percent, reversing a weak open.

Chinese investor support has extended across a breadth of shares. The Beijing Stock Exchange 50 Index, which predominantly lists small-cap tech stocks, rose 1.49 percent on Friday, outperforming other larger cap indices.

Overseas investor anxiety was heightened by White House clarification on Thursday that cumulative tariffs imposed on Chinese imports by President Donald Trump total 145 percent.

While on Friday afternoon, China said it will raise tariffs on products imported from the US to 125 percent, effective as of April 12, from 84 percent.

European markets turned from early gains to losses on the news, lead by the DAX in Germany. US stock futures also did an about-face, pointing to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday. Gold continued to climb.

Market sentiment has also been rattled by the uncertainties created by flip-flopping Washington policies, after Trump one day strongly defended his tariffs and the next day rescinded most of them for 90 days.

US stocks slumped on Thursday, with the S&P 500 index tumbling 3.46 percent, a day after posting its biggest gain in 17 years.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed again on Thursday that if the US insists on waging a tariff war, China will fight to the end. The Ministry of Commerce announced plans to help companies adversely impacted by the trade tensions.

The overall week proved dramatic and the bourses in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong still reported weekly losses of 3.11 percent, 5.13 percent and 8.47 percent, respectively, due to the sharp drop on Monday despite of four days of straight growth afterwards.

"China's stock market performance has shown strong resilience this week against turbulent markets elsewhere, but investors are still cautious, as shown by the continued increase of gold prices," said Zhang Di, chief macroeconomics analyst with China Galaxy Securities. "Sovereign funds and investors around the world are all rushing to buy gold, no matter how high prices rise."

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei retreated nearly 3 percent, while markets in South Korea, Singapore and Australia were all in the red.