China's state-owned enterprise supervisor has injected 500 million yuan (71.4 million US dollars) to help Dongfang Electric Co. resume operations after the May 12 earthquake.

Li Rongrong, chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced the investment during a tour of the company on Wednesday, Thursday's China Securities Journal reported.

The news boosted shares of the country's leading generating equipment producer by 5.71 percent in the morning session on Thursday. Its shares has fallen by 24.4 percent since the quake.

SASAC would also channel 62.26 million yuan from centrally-administered companies to support Dongfang's reconstruction, Sichuan Daily cited Li as saying Thursday.

"This is the first step of SASAC aid to the company," Li said, but he did not elaborate on further plans.

Dongfang Electric topped the five state-owned enterprises that suffered the most damage in the quake.

The company was still counting its quake losses while preliminary estimates were 5 billion yuan. Eighty percent of its main manufacturing base in Hanwang town of Sichuan Province was damaged, which accounted for 20 percent of its annual revenue last year.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2008)