BEIJING, Dec. 25 -- Chinese stocks posted gains on Friday as market sentiment was boosted by a strong transportation sector.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.43 percent to close at 3,627.91 points. The smaller Shenzhen index gained 0.37 percent to end at 12,980.57 points.

Total turnover on the two bourses stood at 684.3 billion yuan (105.7 billion U.S. dollars), down from 749.6 billion yuan the previous trading day.

Winners outnumbered losers by 679 to 278 in Shanghai and by 991 to 528 in Shenzhen. More than 60 shares increased by the daily limit of 10 percent.

The transportation sector performaed well.

Highway bridges and shipbuilding led the gains. The sub-index for highway bridges, which tracks 20 firms, was up 2.92 percent, including Hubei Chutian Expressway Co.,Ltd. jumping by the daily limit of 10 percent.

The shipbuilding subindex, covering 8 firms, gained 2.41 percent. CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering Company Limited. was up 5.36 percent to 39.51 yuan and China CSSC Holdings Limited. rose 2.59 to 36.07 yuan per share.

Jufeng Investment Information believed the transportation sector will see more developing opportunities in the future as the Central Urban Work Conference on Tuesday vowed to foster new city clusters and key regional cities.

The ChiNext Index, a NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, lost 0.43 percent to end at 2,795.78 points.