Bargain hunters entered the battered mainland B-share markets yesterday, triggering one of the biggest one-day rebounds this year to lift Shanghai's index off a record low.
Analysts said fresh rumours that Beijing would allow Sino-foreign funds to invest in the markets prompted buying from domestic investors with access to hard currencies.
This lifted the Shanghai B-Share Index 9.26 per cent to 31.242 points - erasing the losses from the past two weeks.
B-share market turnover rose sharply to US$5.73 million against $2.86 million the previous day.
Shenzhen's B-Share Index also rose, but by 4.34 per cent to 62.55 points, on a turnover of HK$18.38 million.
Analysts said Shanghai was also boosted by Morgan Stanley's purchase for a client of about a million shares in Heilongjiang Electric Power.
'Foreign investors have been dumping B shares for a while and when you have a foreign buyer buying into a thin market, obviously it would create ripples,' the head of a brokerage said.
