SHANGHAI, China (AP) — China's attempt to cool stock market fever by raising interest rates and tightening credit appeared to have little impact on local investors' insatiable appetite yesterday, with both mainland markets hitting new records.The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.0 percent to close at 4,072.23, a new record high. The Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 2.1 percent to 1,181.42, also a record. So far this year, the Shanghai index has soared 52.2 percent.

The nonchalant response shows that China's stock markets, which have soared to record highs this year despite warnings from regulators over the risks of excess speculation, increasingly are driven by retail trading, rather than big institutional investors, analysts said.

"The impact of Friday's measures can't immediately be seen in the market today. There are a lot more individual stock investors now, and they're not as sensitive to policy changes as institutional investors," said Cheng Weiqing, an analyst at Citic Securities in Beijing.

Yesterday's strong performance in Chinese shares seemed to reassure investors elsewhere in Asia: Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index added 0.90 percent, South Korea's benchmark index rose 1 percent to a new record, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index held steady, gaining 0.1 percent.

On Friday, after markets closed, the central bank raised interest rates for the fourth time in a year and also ordered banks to set aside more reserves, reducing the amount of money available for lending. The rate on a commercial one-year loan rose 0.18 percent to 6.57 percent.

In another measure, aimed at reining in exports, the Ministry of Finance announced yesterday it will impose or raise export tariffs on steel products, some base metals and ores and scrap, effective June 1.

Those moves coincided with a decision to broaden the daily trading range of the yuan against the US dollar, a move that could lead to a faster appreciation of the yuan, which many of China's trading partners say is undervalued.

The gesture was likely aimed at cooling tensions with the United States ahead of high-level trade talks this week in Washington.