The four stocks purchased in the debut of a foreign investor in China's stock market yesterday received a shot in the arm as domestic investors rushed in to ride on the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor's play.

Shanghai Port Container Co Ltd soared 8.11 percent to 13.87 yuan (US$1.67), while Shenzhen-listed telecom-munication equipment maker ZTE Corp gained 6.12 percent to close at 19.59 yuan. Sinotrans Air Trans-portation Development Co Ltd finished 5.21 percent higher at 21.62 yuan and Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd, the listed vehicle of Shanghai Baosteel Group Corp, grew 3.97 percent to 5.50 yuan.

The upswing on the four companies, which analysts said was purely fuelled by domestic buying, made UBS AG's first stock purchase yesterday a fruitful one.

A day earlier, UBS selected the four firms in the first purchase by a foreign investor in China's local-currency Class-A shares under the QFII scheme.

The Swiss bank purchased Shanghai Port Container for an average price of 12.65 yuan, ZTE for 18.11 yuan, Sinotrans Air Transportation Development for 20.58 yuan and Baoshan Iron & Steel for 5.24 yuan, according to a report from China Securities Journal.

No amount of share volume purchased was revealed.

"Lots of domestic investors followed the QFII play to push up the prices in the four companies UBS had purchased," said analyst Zhang Qi of Haitong Securities Co Ltd.

"But UBS is not likely to sell its participation in the four stocks to seek imme-diate profit as it is committed to a long-term investment."

Some said those who moved into the stocks UBS had built positions on were not wise. They believed there are some investors behind the scene who intentionally drove up the share prices to entice more foreign investors to the market.

"You have to let the new-comers make some money before others will follow suit," said Wu Jie, a dealer of Kinghing Securities Co Ltd.

Besides UBS, Nomura Holdings Inc, Morgan Stanley Co International Ltd, Citigroup Global Transaction Services and Goldman Sachs have been braced for buying, holding US$425 million in total capital.

The plays on the QFII stocks helped to push the broad share prices into positive territory yesterday.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which covers both Class-A shares and hard-currency Class-B shares, rose 1.90 percent to 1531.93.

The Shenzhen Sub-Index finished at 3383.05, an increase of 2.32 percent.