China's property group Longfor jumps on strong sales, rivals surge

Agile group

11/04/2023 05:17

** Shares of Chinese property developer Longfor Group
 0960.HK  jump as much as 8.9% to HK$23.30, their highest since
March 8
    ** Stock is the third-biggest gainer in Hang Seng Index
 .HSI , Hang Seng Property Index  .HSNP  and Hang Seng China
Enterprises Index  .HSCE    
    ** Beijing-based Longfor says its March contracted sales
attributable to the shareholders amounted to 15.24 bln yuan
($2.21 bln), up 38.5% from a year ago 
    ** Fitch Ratings said China's property market has shown
signs of stabilising since 2023 and the moderately positive
momentum is expected to persist into the second quarter amid 
economic recovery and supportive policy measures 
    ** "We expect state-owned enterprises and a few
non-defaulted private developers to be the main beneficiaries if
the positive momentum sustains because of their stronger
financial capacity to launch new projects and provide additional
properties for sale" - Fitch
    ** Shares of smaller developers also rise with Country
Garden  2007.HK  jumping 12.7%, Agile Group  3383.HK  surging
6.1% and Hopson Development  0754.HK  climbing 4.6%
    ** Hang Seng Property Index  .HSNP  surges 2.4% and Hang
Seng Mainland Properties Index  .HSMPI  jumps 6.5% 
    ** Hang Seng China Enterprises Index  .HSCE  and Hang Seng
Index  .HSI  both climb 0.3%

    ($1 = 6.8839 yuan)

 (Reporting by Donny Kwok)
 ((donny.kwok@thomsonreuters.com))