The Shanghai B-share index rose 2.47 per cent to 176.326 points, while Shenzhen's ended up 1.82 per cent at 279.20 on moderate turnover.

So-called WTO plays, including fibre maker Worldbest <900940.SS>, real estate firm Lujiazui <900932.SS> and Guangdong Expressway <200429.SZ>, outperformed the market on expectations of benefits from increased trade and foreign investment.

China becomes a WTO member today.

Textile firm Worldbest jumped 5.72 per cent to US$0.850 on expectations of better exports after WTO entry.

Lujiazui, the developer for Shanghai's premier financial area where many foreign banks have set up their China headquarters, rose 3.02 per cent to US$0.954.

Guangdong Expressway also finished up more than 3 per cent at HK$4.06 (52.05 US cents) as analysts said higher trade volumes in China would boost traffic and raise its toll revenues.

Other export-oriented firms were also high on the gainers list.

Zhenhua Port Machinery <900947.SS>, China's biggest container crane exporter, ended up 3.47 per cent at US$1.102.

A Zhenhua official said in late November the company expected to export cranes worth US$320 million this year, up more than 40 per cent from last year.

But some brokers said they did not expect the market rally to be sustained today as entry into the WTO was already well-anticipated by the market.

"When the news is actually out, people probably will not be buying as heavily as before," said an analyst of CITIC Securities.

However, even if WTO plays did not continue to lead, brokers said B-share indices were still expected to head further north as the markets had started to recover in mid-November on government policy support, including a cut in stock trading taxes.

Domestic A shares, reserved for Chinese investors, closed mixed after a day of lacklustre trade. But they were off their session lows, lifted by the firming B shares.

The Shanghai composite index rose 3.275 points to 1,748.682 on moderate turnover of 6.00 billion yuan (US$724.6 million).

The Shenzhen composite sub-index dropped 3.15 points to 3,554.40 on lacklustre trading of 3.75 billion yuan (US$453.4 million).

China's yuan gained ground against the US dollar yesterday as commercial banks sold more dollars supplied by Chinese trade firms whose exports rose with approach of the year's end, dealers said.

The yuan closed at 8.2770 to the dollar, up from 8.2772 on Friday, after moving in a narrow range of 8.2768 to 8.2771. Turnover was moderate at US$310 million, up from US$280 million.

"We have seen growing hard-currency settlements by foreign trade companies over the past week," said a Chinese bank dealer.

"Such growth is typical at the end of the year as the companies usually have strong exports for the Christmas and New Year holidays," he said.

Dealers said they expected the yuan to remain strong for the rest of this year and move around 8.2770, the firm end of its long-standing 30-notch band, due to anticipated robust exports.

The yuan has generally been solid this year, backed by China's healthy trade surplus of US$17.33 billion in the first 10 months.

(China Daily December 11, 2001)