1st LD-Writethru: Chinese shares close higher Friday

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese stocks closed higher on Friday, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 2.91 percent to 3,261.56 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 4.71 percent higher at 10,357.68 points.

The combined turnover of the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses reached around 2.1 trillion yuan (about 294.31 billion U.S. dollars), up from 1.49 trillion yuan recorded on the previous t