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China shares rise on Wall Street’s gains

SHANGHAI - Chinese shares rose for a second day Friday after Wall Street’s overnight gains and stronger corporate earnings, ending the week up 1 percent.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index climbed 64.35 points, or 2.7 percent, to close at 2444.23. The Shenzhen Composite Index for China’s smaller second exchange gained 3.5 percent to 820.835.

‘Part of it was external markets performing well and part was annual reports showing some companies doing better,’ said Zhang Xiang, an analyst for Guodu Securities in Beijing.

Investors had been hesitant ahead of the release of first quarter economic data next week. But Zhang said that while the data are expected to be ‘half-good, half-bad,’ optimistic market sentiment might prompt investors to ignore bad news.

Investors reacted positively in industries that have been reporting better-than-expected annual earnings for 2008.

Nonferrous metals and oil companies jumped on higher global commodity prices.

Jiangxi Copper Ltd. soared by the daily maximum of 10 percent to 25.72 yuan and Aluminum Corp. of China was up 2.9 percent at 10.82 yuan.

PetroChina Ltd., Asia’s biggest oil and gas producer, rose 1.7 percent to 11.48 yuan and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, the region’s biggest refiner by volume, climbed 1.5 percent to 8.99 yuan.

Renewable energy-related shares rose after Chinese media reported the government would introduce a stimulus plan for the industry.

Fengfan Stock Co., a battery maker, and Beijing New Building Materials PLC both surged by the daily limit of 10 percent, Fengfan Stock to 13.79 yuan and the latter to 9.93 yuan.

In currency markets, the yuan weakened to 6.8355 to the U.S. dollar, down from Thursday’s close of 6.83408.