"Bargain-hunters jumped in to pick up cheap stocks, driving up prices on the across-the-board market," said Dai Ming of Citic Securities. "There could still be some room for an upswing for the short term. But afterwards, the rally might come to a halt if there is no stimulus measures from the securities regulator."

Dai said the impending earnings season was not likely to give great boost to the market as the consensus among big players has long been established that the profit for 2002 is expected to rise by 20 percent from 2001.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 3 percent to 1372.07. Daily trading volume reached 5.58 billion yuan (US$673 million).

The A-share index ad-vanced 3 percent to 1433.28.

Citic Securities Co., China's first listed brokerage, shook off the downward cycle yesterday since its debut on Monday to hit the 10 percent daily trading cap, closing at 5.34 yuan yesterday.

There was strong buying of finance-related stocks as Anshan Trust & Investment Co. grew 7.72 percent to 6.28 yuan and China Merchants Bank Co. was up 4.21 percent to 8.42 yuan.

Some low-priced large-capitalization were also among yesterday's leading gainers as Jiangxi Copper Co. rose 7.04 percent to 4.56 yuan and China United Telecommunications Corp. closed 6.02 percent higher at 2.82 yuan.

The Shanghai B-share index closed at 118.80, an increase of 3.11 percent.

(Shanghai Daily January 9, 2003)