China Stocks gain on pleasing industrial data

The Mainland China share market finished session higher on Wednesday, 27 January 2021, as investors cheered better-than-expected industrial profits data. At closing bell, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.11%, or 3.91 points, to 3,573.34. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, rose 0.28%, or 6.76 points, to 2,420.92. The blue-chip CSI300 index climbed up 0.27%, or 15.03 points, to 5,528.

China's industrial profits grew 20.1% year-on-year in December 2020, bigger than the 15.5% increase registered in November 2020, the country's National Bureau of Statistics announced on Wednesday. For the whole year of 2020, annual profits for China's industrial firms grew 4.1% year-on-year to 6.45 trillion yuan, recovering from a 3.3% on-year decline seen in 2019. Earnings at China's state-owned industrial firms were down 2.9% for 2020 year-on-year, compared with a 12% slump in 2019, the statistics bureau data showed. Private sector profits grew 3.1% in 2020, stronger than 2019's 2.2% rise.

China is the only major economy in the world to avoid a contraction in 2020, with gross domestic product up 2.3% for the full year, while many countries remain crippled by the pandemic.

CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan edged up against the dollar as the central bank set a firmer midpoint. Prior to the market open, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 6.4665per dollar, r 0.28% stronger than the previous fix of 6.4847. The spot yuan was changing hands at 6.4620, firmer by 0.02% firmer than the previous session close at 6.4635.

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