BEIJING - Chinese shares continued to rebound, climbing 2.26 percent on Wednesday after major companies denied rumors of massive refinancing plans.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both A and B shares, rose 95.87 points to 4,334.05. The Shenzhen Component Index gained 424 points, or 2.77 percent, to 15,752.4.

Banks and large-cap shares led the rise, although analysts had forecast that prices would decline after large numbers of shares ended lock-up periods on Wednesday.

China Merchants Bank (CMB) rose 4.87 percent to 31.84 yuan (about US$4.48), although 2.53 billion of its locked-up shares became tradable on Wednesday.

As long as a company showed robust growth and had a reasonable share price, the release of tradable shares wouldn't have much impact on the share price, as CMB showed, according to analyst Huang Xiangbin with Xinda Securities.

Ping An insurance jumped by 5.56 percent to 71.82 yuan after it confirmed that a  share offering was still pending and said that it would carefully consider the size and timing of the refinancing plan.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)'s overnight call on Monday for more cautious refinancing moves helped ease investor concern over liquidity problems.

Ping An said it would not abandon the refinancing plans because of the warning.

Analyst said that rumors of a cut in stamp duties on stock transactions, as urged recently by several stock market experts, encouraged some speculative activity.

"Many shares have already returned to reasonable levels. Hefty duties increase transaction costs and dampen investor sentiment, which is unhelpful to the current market," said He Qiang, professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

PetroChina, which accounts for around 25 percent of the Shanghai index, gained 0.8 percent to 22.58 yuan, and Sinopec, the largest oil refiner, rose 2.45 percent to 17.17 yuan.

China Life surged 3.92 percent to 38.66 yuan.

Combined turnover decreased to 123.84 billion yuan from 135.51 billion yuan on Tuesday.