Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. led gains by aluminum producers in Chinese stock exchange trading on optimism demand for the metal will increase as the economy recovers.
Aluminum Corp. or Chalco, the nation’s biggest maker of the lightweight metal, surged by the daily 10 percent limit to 15.06 yuan at the close in Shanghai. Shandong Nanshan Aluminum Co., the No. 2, advanced 10 percent to 12.82 yuan in Shanghai while Yunnan Aluminium Co., the fifth largest, climbed 10 percent to 11.94 yuan in Shenzhen. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index added 0.2 percent.
“Major listed aluminum companies we cover are all forecast to report profit in the second quarter,” Luo Wei, an analyst at China International Capital Corp., said in a report today. He has an “overweight” rating on the aluminum industry.
China’s aluminum output grew 6 percent in June from the previous month, China Mainland Marketing Research Co., which compiles data for the government, said today. Gross domestic product grew 7.9 percent in the second quarter, faster than the 6.1 percent pace in the previous three-month period, the statistics bureau said yesterday.
Housing sales surged 45.3 percent in the first five months and real-estate investment growth accelerated to 6.8 percent, the statistics bureau said last month. Car sales rose 48 percent in June, the most since February 2006, according to industry figures.
Aluminum has gained 2 percent this month, set for its fourth month of advances in five on the London Metal Exchange, and jumped 10 percent so far this year, tracking a rally in industrial metals led by copper.