MAINLAND and Hong Kong shares matched strong rebounds in global equity markets yesterday morning, with sentiment aided by signs of government support and record new loan data in January.

China Securities Investor Services Center, directly managed by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), on Monday urged major shareholders to buy more shares, saying listed companies shared the responsibility to protect small investors’ interests with regulators.

Investors may also have been encouraged by data showing China’s banks extended a record 2.9 trillion yuan (US$458.2 billion) in new yuan loans in January — blowing past expectations at nearly five times the previous month’s total — suggesting economic growth will remain supported by robust lending.

Mainland’s blue-chip CSI300 index was up 2.13 percent, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 2.86 percent, the consumer staples sector up 2.12 percent, the real estate index up 4.4 percent and health care sub-index up 1.55 percent.

The smaller Shenzhen index was up 1.34 percent and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was 1.06 percent higher.

About 9.42 billion shares have traded so far on the Shanghai exchange, roughly 42.6 percent of the market’s 30-day moving average of 22.12 billion shares a day. The last full trading day’s volume was 15.33 billion shares.

The price-to-earnings ratio of the Shanghai index was 14.46 as of the last full trading day while the dividend yield was 2 percent.

So far this week, the market capitalization of the Shanghai stock index has risen by 0.57 percent to 27.89 trillion yuan.

(SD-Agencies)