Stocks up on blue-chip index 27-month high

Chinese stocks ended higher last week, led by strong performances in blue chips.

The blue-chip CSI300 index extended its rally on Friday to close up 0.88 percent at 4,111.91 points, notching a 27-month high. Meanwhile, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.14 percent to close at 3,432.67 points on Friday with a five-day winning streak.

Sentiment was bolstered by the Chinese government’s move to lift foreign ownership limits in the country’s financial firms on Friday.

China’s Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said that restrictions on investment in Chinese banks and financial asset management companies will be removed. Analysts believe the move could help lure more overseas capital into the domestic stock market.

Insurance and securities shares were mostly up, powered by New China Life Insurance, which surged 8.93 percent for the day.

“The further opening-up will help enhance competitiveness for the Chinese financial sector by embracing fuller foreign competition,” Wu Kan, head of equity trading at Shanshan Finance, wrote in a Reuters report.

Clean energy shares also got a boost thanks to US President Donald Trump’s official visit to China last week, when deals worth over $250 billion were signed, including some related to the clean energy sector. For instance, share prices of Longi Green Energy Technology jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent.

Over the past week, the blue-chip index gained 3 percent, marking its best in a year, while the Shanghai index was up 1.8 percent.

The consumer sector far outperformed last week with a gain of 5.6 percent.

Shares of Kweichow Moutai, China’s most valuable liquor maker, have more than doubled this year. On Friday, they rose 4.29 percent to 677.95 yuan per share, bringing the company’s market capitalization to more than 850 billion yuan ($127.98 billion). The company reported better-than-expected earnings for the first three quarters of this year.

Securities analysts predict that investors will continue focusing on major firms with solid growth and large market capitalization this week.