Mainland stocks lifted by industrial, materials stocks

Industrial and materials stocks lifted Chinese mainland stocks on Thursday, which some analysts said was aided by hopes there will be significant changes in opening up the economy more widely to foreign investors.

The blue- chip CSI300 index rose 0.54 percent to 3,721.28 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.68 percent to 3,268.43 points.

Late on Wednesday, China’s cabinet said the country will become more open for global investors, citing sectors of new- energy vehicle manufacturing, ship design, aircraft main- tenance and railway passenger transportation. Details were not given.

“The measures to ease foreign investment restrictions came after the US announced its probe of China’s intellectual property practices, and the prospect of lifting foreign investment is having a significant effect on the market,” said Zhang Gang, an analyst at Southwest Securities in Beijing.

Strong performance in industrials was led by China Nuclear Engineer- ing Corp Ltd, which rose by the daily limit of 10 percent. On Wednesday, the company said that newly signed contracts in the first seven months increased 17.2 percent from the previous year.

Trade was most active in materials firms. The shares of Aluminum Corp of China, the day’s most heavily traded, finished up 1.14 percent.

Aluminum prices have reached multi- year highs on expectations of supply curbs as China reforms its metals industry.