Xinjiang Communications Construction Group and other listed companies from China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region jumped in Shanghai and Shenzhen trading on expectations that they would benefit from the region’s above-national-average economic growth.
Infrastructure builder Xinjiang Communications surged by the 10 per cent daily cap imposed by the mainland’s exchanges to 17.49 yuan in Shenzhen on Friday, while movie producer and distributor Bona Film Group jumped by the same percentage to 6.25 yuan. Thermal power generator Xinjiang Tianfu Energy soared 10 per cent to 8.67 yuan on the Shanghai bourse, where cement maker Xinjiang Qingsong Building Materials and Chemical rose 6.4 per cent to 4.79 yuan.
The fervour underscored investors’ growing optimism about the growth prospects of listed companies based in the resource-rich area, which often receives policy tailwinds from Beijing. Xinjiang’s economy expanded by 5.7 per cent in the first half, surpassing mainland China’s overall 5.2 per cent growth and rivaling the fastest-growing provinces.
Speculation that the region would build an artificial intelligence data centre – taking advantage of its vast land and low power rates – partly drove the gains in Xinjiang stocks, according to Dai Ming, a fund manager at Huichen Asset Management in Shanghai.
“The Xinjiang stocks are a unique sector,” he said. “Xinjiang abounds with natural resources and it also has a special status. The stocks can often be for thematic trading because of the prospect of policy support.”
A gauge of 61 Xinjiang-based listed companies rose 1.6 per cent on Friday, adding to a 26 per cent gain this year, against a 16 per cent gain in the CSI 300 Index. The region’s biggest listed companies include electrical component maker TBEA and cement maker Tianshan Materials.
