BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- China's average daily stock trading volume at the Shanghai Stock Exchange shrank 35.2 percent month on month to 96.85 billion yuan (14.2 billion U.S. dollars) in February, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said Thursday.

China's stock market was closed from Feb. 13 to 19, for the Spring Festival, the most important Chinese traditional holiday.

Analysts held that trading was normally bleak in the Spring Festival month, as some investors preferred to cash in profits before going back to hometowns for family gatherings and some were cautious before the release of new economic data after the holiday.

The Spring Festival fell in January last year. The daily average stock turnover was down 3.38 billion yuan to 65.4 billion yuan in January 2009 compared with December 2008, according to the PBOC.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged up 110.58 points from Feb. 1 to 3,051.94 points on Feb. 26 this year, the last trading day in the month, the central bank said in a financial market report released Thursday on its official website.

China's financial market kept its smooth run in January and February, said the PBOC.

The Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.23 percent, or 38.32 points, to end at 3,147.42 points Thursday. The turnover at the Shanghai Stock Exchange was 154 billion yuan, showing investors' heartened confidence in economic recovery.

Thursday's official figures revealed that the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for China's manufacturing sector stood at 55.1 percent in March, up 3.1 percentage points from February, the 13th straight month that the index was above 50 percent.