China's shares rose nearly 1 percent on Monday to their highest levels in more than two months as investors, hoping for a market turnaround, built positions in blue chips such as Sinopec Corp. The benchmark Shanghai composite index closed at 1,138.882 points, the highest since April 29 when it finished at 1,159.146 points. The market has now ended in positive territory for five of the past six sessions.
"Investors' confidence has been boosted by the yuan revaluation. They're pushing the index higher and higher," said Deng Yunsheng, an analyst with Guohai Securities.
Top Asia oil refiner Sinopec, among the most actively traded stocks of the day, jumped 2.4 percent to 4.34 yuan.
And Wuhan Iron and Steel Co Ltd, the listed arm of the country's third-largest steel mill, climbed 0.5 percent to 3.75 yuan.
Beijing revalued the domestic currency by 2.1 percent last month in a move seen as boosting corporate buying power and domestic consumption in the long run.
That has helped to prop up the benchmark index - which has fallen over 10 percent so far this year, dragged down by the government's unpopular programme to sell more than $200 billion of untraded state holdings in listed firms.
Analysts expected the rally to continue, with the index likely to hit 1,150 points in the near term. That's partly because the market had slid 15 percent in 2005 to become the world's worst-performing major index, battered by economic cooling measures and a crackdown on corruption.
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