Stimulus speculation lifts Chinese stocks Chinese stocks in Shanghai and Hong Kong rose sharply as speculation intensified that Beijing was to announce measures to help support its ailing market. Rumours of a press conference by China Securities Regulatory Commission, one of China's primary market regulators, led to a sharp turnround in trade in the second half of the session, and the Shanghai Composite ended the day up 2.6 per cent at 2,056.3, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.1 per cent to 20,762.29. Beijing has already injected a record amount of cash into its money markets this week, Rmb365bn ($58bn) in the last three days. But with the economy slowing and the mainland stock market at its lowest point in three-and-a-half years, investors still hope for more direct action to support the market. "Talk of a press conference by CSRC put a rocket under Chinese markets," said Adrian Foster at Rabobank. When Chinese regulators make announcements they are generally market positive so buy now. Negative policies are more likely to be slipped in quietly without any fanfare," he added. Financial stocks were among the biggest gainers, with Haitong Securities rising 6.3 per cent to Rmb9.42 and Citic Securities up 4.9 per cent to Rmb11.54. China Pacific Insurance climbed 5 per cent to Rmb20.01. Coal miners were on the rebound on hopes that stimulus efforts would increase demand from industry. China Coal Energy gained 4.9 per cent to Rmb7.04. Financials were similarly buoyed in Hong Kong, with New China Life Insurance up 6.1 per cent to HK$24.35 while Citic Securities added 3.9 per cent to HK$13.76. Elsewhere in the region, there were gains also, which helped lift the FTSE Asia Pacific index 0.8 per cent to 237.45. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 underperformed, however, climbing just 0.5 per cent to 8,949.87. Aozora Bank was the biggest faller on the index, down 9 per cent to Y232, after it announced its main shareholder - US private equity group Cerberus Capital Management - was to sell a stake.