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Stocks advance to three-week high

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-14 08:07

China's stocks rose to the highest in three weeks, led by energy companies and automakers, after oil prices rebounded and SAIC Motor Corp said third-quarter profit probably increased.

China Shenhua Energy Co and China Coal Energy Co, the nation's top two coal producers, gained more than 2 percent. SAIC Motor, China's largest car maker, advanced 2.6 percent. Chongqing Changan Automobile Co, the Chinese partner of Ford Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp, rose 1.6 percent after saying it probably returned to profit in the third quarter.

"With the start of the earnings season, investors expect more companies to report results that will beat analysts' estimates," Wang Lei, who helps oversee $530 million at Lombarda China Fund Management Co in Shanghai. "You can probably expect buying opportunities this month."

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China's stock exchanges, rose 41.71, or 1.4 percent, to 2,936.19 at close, the highest since Sept 21. The CSI 300 Index, measuring exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, gained 1.5 percent to 3,198.52.

The Shanghai index has climbed 61 percent this year as the country's gross domestic product rebounded from the slowest growth in almost a decade, boosted by a $586-billion government stimulus package, government subsidies for consumer spending and record new bank loans of $1.1 trillion.

It declined 6.1 percent in the third quarter on concern a slowdown in lending growth will stifle the world's third-largest economy and new share sales will divert funds from existing equities.

A measure tracking energy stocks rose 2.4 percent yesterday, the most among the 10 industry groups of the CSI 300 Index.

Crude traded at $73 a barrel in New York in after-hours trading, after settling on Monday at a seven-week high of $73.27. Coal prices at Qinhuangdao port, a benchmark in China, the world's biggest producer of the fuel, rose for a fourth week.

The price of coal with an energy value of 5,500 kilocalories a kg gained 0.8 percent to between 600 yuan ($87.89) and 615 yuan in the week ended Oct 12, compared with the last assessment, according to data published by the China Coal Transport and Distribution Association.

Hong Kong stocks rise

Related readings:  Stocks slump as bank loans decline  Construction steel stocks continue to rise in Shanghai  Stocks get boost amid G20 optimism  Chinese stocks rebound on power consumption figures

The Hang Seng Index advanced 0.8 percent to close at 21,467.36. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which tracks the so-called H shares of mainland companies, added 1.1 percent to 12,507.87.

The Hang Seng Index has rallied 89 percent from a four-month low on March 9. The average price of stocks on the index has risen to 17.2 times estimated earnings from 10.6 times at the start of the year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.