Chinese shares up 0.45% at midday led by material producers

BEIJING, March 18 (Chinese media) -- Chinese shares were up

0.45 percent, led by material producers when morning trading ended Wednesday.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.45

percent to 2,228.21 points and the smaller Shenzhen index rose 1.05 percent to

8,478.02 points.

Oil stocks rose as crude prices continued to gain and

closed above 49 U.S. dollars a barrel. PetroChina was up 0.73 percent to 10.98

yuan and Sinopec 0.83 percent rose to 8.49 yuan and.

The news also lifted coal shares with Anhui Hengyuan Coal

Industry and Electricity Power Co. up 6.12 percent to end at 19.42 yuan.

The steel sector also saw rises as the Shanghai Stock

Exchange tested operation of futures transactions of two types of steel products

Wednesday. Angang Steel Company gained 3.07 percent to close at 8.05 yuan.

Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co. rose by the daily limit of

10 percent to 7.33 yuan after the dairy firm reported a 87 percent growth in its

net profit in 2008.

Financial stock pared gains as most financial shares

fell after the World Bank cut its forecast for China's 2009 economic growth

again to 6.5 percent from 7.5 percent in a report released Wednesday.

China Minsheng Banking Corp. lost 1.03 percent to close

at 4.82 yuan. China Merchants Bank dropped 0.8 percent to 14.86 yuan.