China's treasury bond futures opened higher on Friday, its first trading day after an 18-year halt following a series of irregularity cases.

The contract for settlement in December 2013 (TF1312), the most actively traded, opened 0.06 percent higher at 94.22 yuan (15.20 U.S. dollars). The contract for settlement in March 2014 (TF1403) gained 0.54 percent to open at 94.694 yuan while the contract for settlement in June 2014 (TF1406) opened at 94.90 yuan, up 0.72 percent.

The contracts are agreements to buy or sell treasury bonds at a predetermined price and set date. They allow investors to bet on and profit from the movements in the value of the bonds.

The treasury bond futures were launched at the Shanghai-based China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and started trading from Sept. 6, 2013. The CFFEX has set the base value for TF1312 at 94.168 yuan, TF1403 at 94.188 yuan and for TF1406 at 94.218 yuan.

China introduced treasury bond futures in 1992 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The trading was halted in 1995 after Wanguo Securities, then the nation's largest brokerage, conducted illegal trading of a government bond futures contract which led to multi-billion-yuan losses and bankruptcy of the company.