Steel, home appliances lead stock rally

BEIJING/SHANGHAI－Chinese shares edged up on Monday, supported by the steel and home appliance sectors. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.49 percent to close at 3,388.17 points. The Shenzhen Component Index closed 1.41 percent higher at 11,373.74 points. The bluechip CSI300 index rose 0.7 percent to 4,020.89 points.

Combined turnover on the two bourses came in at 465 billion yuan ($70 billion).

The ChiNext Index, China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, gained 0.95 percent to close at 1,850.3 points.

More than 2,000 stocks gained, with the steel and home appliance sectors among the biggest winners.

Qingdao Haier jumped 6.71 percent to close at 16.12 yuan per share. Nanjing Iron & Steel rose 4.27 percent to close at 4.64 yuan per share.

Financial and property sectors dropped the most. Bank of Nanjing fell 2.53 percent to 7.7 yuan per share. Poly Real Estate Group shed 2.63 percent to 10.38 yuan per share.

China is prohibiting property developers, real estate agencies as well as internet finance and micro-loan companies from financing down payments for home buyers to rein in property prices in major cities.

Using funds obtained through channels such as consumer loans for property purchases will also be banned, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

Robust gains in consumer and healthcare firms helped the market recoup earlier losses after curbs out of Beijing weighed on the banking and property sectors.

Consumer and health care firms led the gains with Yonghui Superstores surging 8.6 percent to a new peak, leading a 2.9 percent gain in consumer sector, while the world's most valuable liquor maker Kweichow Moutai also hit a fresh high.

An index tracking healthcare firms advanced 3.5 percent to its highest level since its launch in early 2005, led by industry bellwether Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine scaling a new peak.

"The robust gains in those sector leaders reflect a change in investing philosophy that attaches more attention to solid fundamentals," said Yan Kaiwen, an analyst with China Fortune Securities.

XINHUA-REUTERS