The stock market soared 2.64 percent on Friday after capital was unfrozen from the initial public offering (IPO) subscription of Shenhua Energy, China's leading coal producer.

Analysts said it's also possible mutual fund companies pushed up the index to lift their performance on the last day of the third quarter.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index opened 0.96 percent higher, and increased 2.17 percent in the morning session. Led by banks and aviation companies, the index continued to rise in the afternoon to close at 5552.3 on the last day of trading before the National Day break. It's the first time the index has held firm over 5500 points at the close.

Turnover on the Shanghai bourse amounted to 138.8 billion yuan yesterday. Gainers outnumbered losers by 774 to 60.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index jumped 2.71 percent to close at 1532.67, while the foreign-currency denominated B-share index climbed 1.44 percent to close at 367.35. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 2.3 percent to close at 17027.73.

"Capital unfrozen from the IPO subscription pushed up market turnover, while investors' liquidity concerns were eased," said Wu Feng, an analyst at TX Investment Consulting Co Ltd.

Shenhua Energy planned to raise 66.58 billion yuan in its IPO, which has seen a record 2.66 trillion yuan subscription.

"Many mutual fund companies are likely to jack up stock prices on the last day of a quarter to temporarily lift mutual funds' performance before reports are released for the quarter," said Wu.

China Oilfield Services surged 195.99 percent to close at 39.9 yuan in its debut on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday, far higher than analysts' expectations.

Stocks in financial sectors performed well. China Life soared 6.88 percent to close at 62.41 yuan, and China's largest stockbroker CITIC Securities jumped 4.65 percent to close at 96.71 yuan. China Construction Bank, which made its debut on the Shanghai bourse on Tuesday, climbed 0.54 percent on Friday after surging 8.64 percent the day before.

Stocks in the real estate sector also performed well, despite the government raising the mortgage down payment from 30 percent to 40 percent for buyers of second apartments on Friday.

(China Daily September 29, 2007)