SHANGHAI: China stocks rose on Monday, with tourism and new energy shares leading the gains, as investors latched on to data that showed exports from the world’s second-largest economy beat forecasts in October to deliver a record trade surplus.

The blue-chip CSI300 index closed up 0.1% at 4,848.18, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2% to 3,498.63 points.

China’s export growth slowed in October but beat forecasts, helped by booming global demand ahead of winter holiday seasons, an easing power crunch and an improvement in supply chains that had been badly disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

“The strong exports help to mitigate the weakening domestic economy, but we think it is unlikely to revert the trend. We continue to expect GDP growth to slow in Q4,” Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management said.

Tourism stocks surged nearly 5% after Pfizer Inc said its experimental antiviral pill to treat COVID-19 cut by 89% the chance of hospitalization or death for adults at risk of severe disease.

The development in anti-viral drugs is one of the factors that Beijing might consider to end its zero-COVID strategy, analysts said, which would boost tourism.

The new energy sub-index, the new energy vehicles sub-index and the environmental governance sub-index rose between 3.2% and 4.2%.

China has a “long way to go” on environmental protection, its State Council acknowledged on Sunday.

State Council said it would be tough to tackle pollution and ensure that carbon emissions peaked in 2030 and carbon-neutrality would be achieved by 2060.

Property developers, after shedding more than 15% in the past two weeks, ended 1.8% higher.

Some Chinese banks have sped up the disbursement of home loans in some cities, a relief to cash-strapped developers anxious to complete sales, but no wave of new credit is being unleashed just yet amid a heavy regulatory push to deleverage the sector.