Chinese Financial Stocks Surge as Li Keqiang Visits Big Banks

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese financial stocks surged Friday, as Premier Li Keqiang visited the nation’s biggest banks and pledged more support for the economy.

Li met staff at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp., and Bank of China Ltd. offices in Beijing, according to a government statement. He said China will strengthen the scale of its counter-cyclical adjustments of macro policies and further cut taxes. Li also urged banks to take full advantage of tools including reserve ratio cuts, and to support private and small businesses’ financing needs, the government said.

The visit was policy makers’ latest effort to spur decelerating growth in the world’s second-largest economy. China is increasing measures to help small and private firms get better access to funding. The central bank tweaked a policy on Wednesday to allow more banks become eligible for targeted reserve ratio cuts and in November regulators set targets for fresh loans to private companies. The non-state sector contributes about 60 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

The Shanghai Composite index rose 1.7 percent as of 1:13 p.m. local time, set for the biggest gain in a month, led by banks and brokerages. ICBC, the world’s largest lender by assets gained as much as 1.4 percent, while CCB rose 1.6 percent. A Bloomberg index of China-listed brokerages was up 8 percent, poised for the biggest advance since October.

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