Bargain hunters pushed Chinese equities to edge up Tuesday, led by energy and financial firms with large capitalization.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index on the Shanghai Stock Exchange closed at 3,161.25 points Tuesday, up 1.02 percent, or 31.99 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange closed at 12,511.89 points Tuesday, up 112.69 points, or 0.91 percent, from the previous close.

Combined turnover expanded to 339.3 billion yuan (49.7 billion U.S. dollars) from 313.4 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

Losers outnumbered gainers by 590 to 298 in Shanghai and 707 to 199 in Shenzhen.

The margin trading and short selling pending to start this week ignited investors' interest in buying more heavyweights Tuesday, Zhang Yunpeng, an analyst with Beijing-based Huarong Securities, told Xinhua Tuesday.

The margin trading and short selling in stock index futures contract tracking, the Hushen 300 Index, will start on April 16 in China.

The Hushen 300 Index, which covers about 60 percent of the markets' value, mainly reflects the performance of China's heavyweights on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets.

Sinopec, China's largest oil refiner, gained 2.29 percent to 11.59 yuan per share. China Shenhua Energy Co., the country's largest coal producer, went up 2.59 percent to 29.69 yuan per share.

However, the ChiNext Index, China's start-up board for small and medium-sized enterprises, was down Tuesday with only one of the 66 stocks rising, showing capital was flowing into firms with large capitalization. The brokerage sector advanced Tuesday on the coming margin trading and short selling business which would increase brokerage firms' revenues, Zhang said.

CITIC Securities, China's biggest brokerage by market value, jumped 3.3 percent to 28.79 yuan per share, while Haitong Securities, another leading brokerage, posted a gain of 2.54 percent to 16.56 yuan per share.

Bargain hunters helped lift the property stocks after a decline for several consecutive trading days.

China Vanke, the nation's biggest property developer by market value, rose 0.54 percent to 9.25 yuan per share, while Poly Real Estate Co., the second largest, gained 1.01 percent to 18.95 yuan per share.