By Jin Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-30 09:00

The stock market in Shanghai jumped 2.83 percent yesterday as institutional investors tried to build a large portfolio of large-cap stocks to prepare for the imminent launch of stock index futures.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 158.37 points to close at 5748 after dropping as much in the past week.

Gainers outnumbered losers 609 to 219. The turnover on the Shanghai bourse shrank to 82.1 billion yuan (US$10.9 billion) yesterday.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index climbed 1.87 percent to close at 1403.86.

Shang Fulin, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said over the weekend that time is "ripe" for the introduction of stock index futures. "This has triggered many institutional investors to acquire large-cap stocks," said Zhu Haibin, an analyst at Essence Securities.

Institutional investors are keen on keeping a large holding of big-cap stocks to give them the fire power to play index futures.

Analysts said the strong performance of Hong Kong and other Asian markets also helped fuel yesterday's rally.

In addition, the announcement of sound corporate earnings of several large lenders and steel companies prompted many to raise their investments in large-caps.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China soared 7.22 percent to close at 8.17 yuan, after announcing its acquisition of a 20 percent stake in Standard Bank in Africa. China Life surged 6.72 percent to close at 75.08 yuan.

Bank of Beijing rose 2.9 percent after posting a net profit growth of 47.01 percent in the first nine months of this year.