The benchmark Shanghai composite index finished at 1,104.792 points. But it is still down a 10th from mid-September, when it scaled a six-month peak. Sinopec, Asia's largest refiner, was the second most active counter, gaining 0.8 percent to 4.02 yuan.
China United Telecommunications Corp Ltd, the smaller of the country's two mobile phone companies, was the most active counter, rising 1.2 percent to 2.60 yuan.
Beijing will take a spate of steps to develop markets, such as allowing more firms to issue bonds and ordering state shareholders to pay back listed firms' funds that had been misused, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday.
The benchmark stock index has now fallen 13 percent since the start of 2005 and is hovering at multi-year lows, battered also by factors such as a controversial scheme to float $250 billion in non-traded state holdings in listed firms.