China shares post best day in three months, cheer party chief's policy comments

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Onshore China shares posted their best day in three months on Wednesday, as investors cheered comments from new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping that set his economic agenda ahead of the party's central economic planning meeting this month.

The CSI300 Index .CSI300 of the top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings soared 3.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC jumped 2.9 percent to 2,031.9, returning above the 2,000-point mark for the first time in more than a week.

Wednesday's gains helped China outperform other Asian bourses after Xi, in comments ahead of the central economic planning meeting later this month, listed tax reform, urbanization and allowing the market to play a bigger role in setting resource prices as among his priorities.

The day produced the strongest gains for both indexes since September 7. They helped the indexes claw back losses in the last two weeks that left them languishing at their lowest in almost four years.

Shanghai bourse volume also hit its highest since September 7, after Beijing approved a graft of infrastructure projects, which suggests domestic retail investors could be returning to the A-share market.

(Reporting by Clement Tan; Editing by Richard Borsuk)