Chinese shares gain 1.74% on retail sales, gov't stimulus

BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shares rose 1.74 percent Wednesday as investor confidence was boosted by April retail salesfigures, which analysts said indicated that government stimulus efforts were having a positive impact.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.74 percent, or 45.59 points, to close at 2,663.77. The Shenzhen Component Index edged up 1.13 percent, or 115.22 points, to 10,294.37.

Gains outnumbered losses by 514 to 315 in Shanghai and 475 to 242 in Shenzhen.

Combined turnover climbed to 222.89 billion yuan (32.63 billion U.S. dollars) from 176.3 billion yuan on Tuesday.

Retail sales rose 14.8 percent in April year on year to 934.32 billion yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Wednesday.

The growth rate was 0.1 percentage point higher than in March.

Government stimulus policies, such as cuts in purchase taxes for small cars and subsidies for farmers to buy agricultural equipment, had played a big part in retail sales, said Yuan Gangming, an economic researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The April figures, including retail sales and fixed-asset investment, which were released Tuesday, had shown clearer signs of economic recovery and boosted investor confidence, said Yang Bo, analyst with Guotai Junan Securities.

PetroChina, one of the country's major state-owned oil producers, helped lift the market as the company announced a plan late Tuesday to raise 100 billion yuan through debt financing in 2009 to support its major strategic projects.

Its shares rose 6.07 percent, or 0.76 yuan, to 13.29 yuan, and led the oil and coal sector up by 2.67 percent.

Jinniu Energy Resources went up 8.38 percent to 35.42 yuan, and Pingdingshan Tianan Coal Mining climbed 7.36 percent to 31.67 yuan.

Industry support plans for the machinery and nonferrous metal sectors, released earlier in the week, were also helping maintain market growth, the analysts said.

Nonferrous metal stocks rose 2.19 percent, while Xiamen Tungsten rose by the daily limit of 10 percent to 16.27 yuan.

The machinery sector grew by 1.36 percent. Hailu Heavy Industry jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent to 26.5 yuan, and Hongcheng General Machinery gained 9.99 percent to 8.04 yuan.

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