Chinese stocks posted broad gains on Wednesday morning and recovered some losses on the previous day after an overnight mild rally on Wall Street.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shot up by 2.26 percent and finished the morning session at 1,945.49 points, led by telecom operators and oil producers. The index sank more than six percent on Tuesday over slump fears and profit-taking from earlier gains.

The Shenzhen Component Index gained 3.21 percent to 6,388.51.

Gains outnumbered losses by 679 to 181 in Shanghai and 613 to 108 in Shenzhen at mid-day.

The country's two major oil producers led the upbeat performance in the morning. PetroChina, the country's largest oil producer, rose 5.32 percent to 11.67 yuan (US$1.72), while Asia's largest refiner Sinopec climbed 8.67 percent to 8.27 yuan.

The telecom sector rose more than 6 percent on news that telecom operators may be allowed to start the third-generation operation as early as next month.

China Unicom, one of the country's telecom operator, went up 5.47 percent to 5.78 yuan, and ZTE, a leading telecom equipment manufacturer, rose 6.34 percent to 22.3 yuan.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.83 percent on Tuesday night, after technology titan Hewlett-Packard Co. reported better-than-expected results.

Tokyo stocks, however, edged down 1.78 percent on Wednesday morning.

(Xinhua News Agency November 19, 2008)