SINGAPORE, Feb 8 Reuters Beatenup Chinese stocks capped off their best week in more than a year on Thursday after a change of leadership at the market regulator and a string of support measures from Beijing ahead of an extended break stemmed a heavy selloff.

The bluechip CSI 300 Index closed 0.6 higher at 3,364.93 points, taking its weekly gain to 5.8, its strongest performance since November 2022.

Markets in China will be closed for a week beginning Friday for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The CSI 300 has since pulled further away from last week39;s fiveyear low after fresh vows of support by statelinked buyers and Bloomberg reporting that President Xi Jinping would meet regulators earlier this week.

The cabinet on Wednesday said it would replace China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Yi Huiman with Wu Qing, a securities regulator veteran who has led the Shanghai Stock Exchange and is known for his tough line on market malpractice.

It seems that Beijing has noticed the sharply falling stock market, said portfolio manager Rob Brewis at UKbased Aubrey Capital Management.

Hard to say how effective the new man is until we see some policies… It won39;t impact the economy or property market which seems to be the major problem, but might well instigate a bounce in the stock market.

On the broader economic front, inflation data underscored the challenge regulators have in stabilising markets amid a fragile postCOVID revival.

Figures released on Thursday showed…