Stocks up on healthy earnings

SHANGHAI - Mainland stocks rose the most in seven weeks after China Construction Bank Corp and Sinopec Corp doubled their profit and analysts said stock-index futures trading will boost brokerage earnings.

Citic Securities Co and China Merchants Bank Co, which have the biggest weightings in the index that will be the basis for futures trading, gained at least 3 percent.

China Construction Bank, the second-largest lender, rose 2.3 percent and Sinopec Corp climbed 1.8 percent.

China Shenhua Energy Co led gains among coal producers on speculation a drought will boost demand.

"The introduction of index futures has given a boost to big-cap stocks that have been lagging the performance of the broader market," said Zhang Ling, who helps oversee about $7.21 billion at ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Co.

"First- quarter earnings should look good, purely because of the extremely low base last year. We still need to see if second- and third-quarter earnings will continue to improve."

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 64.08, or 2.1 percent, to 3123.80 at the close, the biggest gain since Feb 3.

The CSI 300 Index gained 2.6 percent to 3358.54.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 03/30/2010 page16)