Stocks rally to seven-year high
Investor at a securities brokerage in Fuyang city, East China’s Anhui province, May 22, 2015. [Photo/IC] Chinese stocks rallied to a seven-year high on Friday, with 255 stocks jumping by the dailylimit of 10 percent, led by financial, technology and healthcare companies. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index advanced for a fourth day and surged 2.8 percentto 4,657.95 points, marking its highest since February 2008, while Shenzhen ComponentIndex climbed 1.1 percent to 16,045.8 points, ending the week with the biggest gain for 7years. Stock turnovers at the two bourses reached nearly 2 trillion yuan ($322.61 billion) on Friday. Brokerages led the gain on Friday, after Guotai Junan Securities, one of the country’sbrokerage giants, said it plans an A-share initial public offering. Sealand Securities andDongxing Securities soared by the daily limit. The outstanding balance of margin trading in Shanghai climbed to a record high of 1.32 trillionyuan as of Thursday, market data showed. Banks including Industrial Bank, Huaxia Bank and Nanjing Bank added more than 4 percent. Smart-themed stocks remained bullish, as robot developer Shanghai Ken Tools Co andprinting manufacturer Sotech Smarter Equipment Co jumped by 10 percent. Healthcare stocks advanced on Friday, with Fosun Pharmaceutical, Topchoice Medical andBoji Pharmaceutical surging by 10 percent. PetroChina and Sinopec, the country’s two major energy magnets, rose 3.4 and 4.4 percentrespectively, after the government said it plans to spin off some oil and gas pipeline assets aspart of the State-owned enterprise reform. Measures of coal and steel sectors edged up more than 2 percent, with Shaanxi Coal andXinjiang Bao Steel surging by the daily limit. China’s capital outflows has stabilized on reduced renminbi depreciation expectations, but cuton the reserve requirement ratio is still needed, said Nomura Financial Group in a note onFriday, adding that the HSBC flash PMI for China rose by 0.2 percentage points in May. China daly