Chinese stocks rose slightly yesterday, led by steel shares after miner BHP Billiton killed its bid for Rio Tinto, abandoning a deal that could have supported iron ore prices.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended up 0.49 percent at 1897.884 points after moving in a narrow range of just 42 points. Gaining Shanghai stocks outnumbered losers by 517 to 353.

Turnover in Shanghai A shares fell to 42.1 billion yuan, still fairly active but below Tuesday's 45.5 billion yuan.