China's stocks rise to record at noon break

China's stocks rise to record at noon break
Last Updated(Beijing Time):2007-05-17

Chinese mainland stocks rose, driving the CSI 300 Index to a record. China United Telecommunications Corp and ZTE Corp climbed on speculation the government will award licenses for the country's high-speed mobile-phone network after setting its technology specifications.

``The introduction of the new standards raised expectations of the issuance of 3G licenses and that gave a boost to telecom carriers and manufacturers, which are likely to benefit from the introduction of 3G,'' said Yan Ping, an analyst at Haitong Securities Co in Shanghai.

The CSI 300, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares listed on China's two exchanges, gained 60.45, or 1.6 percent, to 3,760.74 as of 10:50am local time, surpassing the previous high set on May 14.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of domestic stock exchanges, rose 1.2 percent to 4,032.59. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller one, added 1.8 percent to 1,144.82.

China United, which controls the nation's second-largest cell phone operator, climbed 0.20 yuan (2.6 US cents), or 3.3 percent, to 6.36 yuan. ZTE, China's biggest publicly traded phone-equipment maker, rose 0.99 yuan, or 2.2 percent, to 45.49 yuan. Guomai Technologies Inc, which provides network technical support, gained 1.76 yuan, or 4 percent, to 45.96 yuan.

The government will adopt wideband code division multiple access, or WCDMA, and CDMA2000 technologies for the nation's third-generation mobile-phone networks, according to Wang Lijian, a Beijing-based spokesman at the Ministry of Information Industry.

China's telephone carriers may spend 150 billion yuan to build 3G mobile networks, according to Francis Cheung, head of Asian telecommunications research at CLSA Ltd in Hong Kong.

China Vanke Co led property stocks higher after the company said sales rose 22 percent last month.



Vanke, the nation's biggest property developer, added 0.49 yuan, or 3.1 percent, to 16.20 yuan. The company said its property sales totaled 2.49 billion yuan in April, compared with 2.04 billion yuan the previous month.

Poly Real Estate Group Co, China's third-largest developer by market value, gained 0.81 yuan, or 2.6 percent, to 31.99 yuan. Gemdale Corp, a Chinese developer that partnered with ING Groep NV, added 0.71 yuan, or 2.8 percent, to 26.45 yuan.