Hong Kong-listed SMIC (00981.HK) continues to climb, shares now up over 5%.

A-shares opened lower then rallied; by midday the Shanghai Composite rose 1.34%, Shenzhen Composite Index was up 1.56%, ChiNext gained 0.89% and the STAR 50 Index jumped 5.18%. Turnover on Shanghai and Shenzhen reached 1.69 tln yuan, up 329.0 bln yuan from the prior session. Storage-chip names led moves with a wave of limit-ups, including Shikong Technology and Jianghua Micro; lithography-related stocks advanced, Woge Optoelectronics posting a second straight daily limit. CROs, telecom equipment, components, semiconductors and nonferrous metals were among the top-performing sectors; banks, liquor and oilfield-services stocks lagged. Nearly 4,000 stocks advanced across the market.

Fed's Paulson said he hopes to see further progress on core inflation.