Chinese equities gain 1.37%, led by car and steel-makers

Chinese stocks gained 1.37 percent Thursday, boosted by car and steel-makers, after two straight days of losses.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index on the Shanghai bourse closed at 3,123.03 points, up 42.26 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed at 12,637.94 points, up 149.36 points, or 1.2 percent.

Total turnover expanded to about 285 billion yuan (41.71 billion US dollars) from 254.4 billion yuan on the previous trading day.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 734 to 125 in Shanghai and 646 to 95 in Shenzhen.

Auto shares led the gains after the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported a 36.48 percent surge in sales of China-made automobiles to 1.14 million units in June.


A total of 872,000 passenger cars, including SUVs and sedans, were sold last month, up 48 percent from the same month a year earlier, the association said Thursday.

Tianjin FAW XIALI Automobile Co. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to end at 9.02 yuan. FAW Car Co. advanced 9.95 percent to 18.23 yuan. SAIC Motor gained 8.63 percent to 19 yuan.

Steel producers also helped push up the index as Chinese steel mills produced about 45.39 million tonnes of crude steel, the highest amount in this year, figures from the China Iron and Steel Association showed.

Chongqing Iron and Steel Company rose 9.98 percent to 6.17 yuan. Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. gained 1.87 percent to 8.18 yuan.

Medical shares also performed well after the State Council, or the Cabinet, agreed at a conference Wednesday to expand basic medical insurance to another 72 million people this year as the first-year goal for the country's three-year 850-billion-yuan health care reform plan.

Sichuan Joint-Wit Medical and Pharmaceutical Group Co. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 12.53 yuan. Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co. rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 15.40 yuan.