BEIJING: China’s stocks rose, erasing an earlier loss, on the last trading day of this week amid speculation state-backed funds were stabilizing the market before a major military parade on Thursday.
The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.3 percent to 3,177.47 at 1:04 p.m., wiping out a drop as much as 4.7 percent. Technology companies led gains, while Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the nation’s largest lender, jumped 2 percent. Large-company shares rebounded in late trade over the past five days from session lows amid speculated purchases by government-backed funds.
“It seems that bargain hunters are back to the market after significant declines these days,” said Wu Kan, a Shanghai-based fund manager at JK Life Insurance Co. “The government may be also involved in the buying before the parade.”
China’s financial markets will be closed for the rest of the week for holidays commemorating the end of World War II. The effort to support stocks is part of a broader push to ensure nothing detracts from the parade, which is the government will use to demonstrate its rising military and political might. What happens in the market has a growing influence on public perceptions of the government’s economic management. With more than 90 million individuals holding equity accounts, equity investors are now a bigger constituency than the Communist Party.
The CSI 300 Index slipped 0.1 percent, paring a loss of as much as 4.4 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index added 0.8 percent, while the Hang Seng Index rose 0.3 percent.
