RIYADH: China stocks closed roughly flat on Tuesday as concerns over the worsening COVID-19 situation offset optimism from recovering services activities in the country. The blue-chip CSI300 index ended down 0.1 percent at 4,489.54, while the Shanghai Composite Index ended flat, at 3,404.03 points. China touts Afghan trade and investment plans China’s ambassador touted trade and investment plans for Afghanistan on Tuesday, in what was a public endorsement for doing business in the Taliban-controlled country after an earthquake drew attention to the humanitarian consequences of Western sanctions. At a rare press conference alongside the Taliban administration’s acting minister for disaster management, Ambassador Wang Yu announced $8 million in aid for relief from the June 22 earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people. “Besides emergency humanitarian aid, after the political changes last year and after the earthquake, we also have long-term economic reconstruction plans,” he said. The priority would be trade, followed by investment, as well as agriculture. No country has formally recognized the Taliban, who seized power last year after the US and its allies withdrew troops following 20 years of war. China port group launches major pipeline in oil hub Shandong China’s Yantai Port Group has started pumping oil into a newly expanded crude oil pipeline that connects the port of Yantai to a group of independent refineries in the country’s refining hub Shandong, state media reported on Tuesday. The 370-kilometer pipeline, with an annual transport capacity of 20 million tons which equals 400,000 barrels per day, is solely invested by Yantai Port Group, a unit of provincial government-backed Shandong Port Group. The new line, linking Yantai with the city of Weifang, adds to an existing parallel 650 km pipeline connecting Yantai with Zibo, bringing total transport capacity to 40 million tons annually, or 800,000 bpd. About 10 independent refineries are linked to the two pipelines, according to Shandong-based commodities consultancy JLC. As part of commodities logistics operations, Yantai Port also operates a 300,000 ton crude oil terminal and a 3.6 million cubic-meter crude oil tank farm.