HONG KONG: Chinese stocks rose, sending the benchmark index to a seven-year high, as drugmakers and technology companies advanced.
Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine gained more than 3 per cent after the nation’s leading economic planner said China would remove limits on most drug prices. Wangsu Science & Technology Co. jumped 6.6 per cent. China Minsheng Banking Corp climbed 1.1 per cent after the lender reported a 5.5 per cent gain in first- quarter net income. Nine out of 10 companies making their trading debuts Wednesday jumped by the daily limit of 44 per cent as Fujian Cosunter Pharmaceutical Co. surged 32 per cent.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5 per cent to 4,312.81 at 9:41 a.m. Baoding Tianwei Group on Wednesday became the country’s first state-owned company to default on an onshore bond, underscoring the government’s pledge to open a cooling economy to market forces.
“I don’t think the credit default risk is widespread especially after China’s monetary easing,” said Wenjie Lu, Shanghai-based strategist at UBS Group. “The case of Baoding doesn’t represent an escalating credit default risk in corporate China.”
