Vice-Premier Li Keqiang's comments send developers' shares higher

Developers were the star performers on the stock market yesterday after premier-in-waiting Li Keqiang said urbanisation would drive most of the country's development in the next decade.

While many Hong Kong-listed mainland developers climbed to 52-week highs, developers listed on the mainland also rallied after a long lull following Beijing's moves to check property prices.

Some of the top-performing developers on the Hong Kong exchange yesterday were CC Land, Zhong An Real Estate, Top Spring International, Sunac China, Sino-Ocean Land, Greentown China and Chinese Overseas Land and Investment.

"The recent rally can hardly be explained by housing market fundamentals. It's driven more by improved liquidity in the Hong Kong market with the inflow of hot money," Mizuho Securities property analyst Alan Jin said.

On the mainland, nine property A shares, including Tianjin Songjiang, rose the maximum permissible 10 per cent. Dazhong Insurance fund manager Wu Kan said the rally was mainly due to Li's comments.

While meeting World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, Li said China's biggest development potential lay in urbanisation.