Chinese stocks high on optimism

HONG KONG – Reuters

Visitors are seen with a replica of the Wall Street bull in Shanghai. REUTERS photo

Onshore China shares posted their best day in three months yesterday, as investors cheered comments from new Communist Party chief Xi Jinping that set his economic agenda ahead of the party’s central economic planning meeting this month.

The CSI300 Index of the top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings soared 3.6 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index jumped 2.9 percent to 2,031.9, returning above the 2,000-point mark for the first time in more than a week.

Yesterday’s gains helped China outperform other Asian bourses after Xi, in comments ahead of the central economic planning meeting later this month, listed tax reform, urbanization and allowing the market to play a bigger role in setting resource prices as among his priorities.

The day produced the strongest gains for both indexes since Sept. 7. They helped the indexes claw back losses in the last two weeks that left them languishing at their lowest in almost four years.

 Shanghai bourse volume also hit its highest since Sept. 7, after Beijing approved a graft of infrastructure projects, which suggests domestic retail investors could be returning to the A-share market.