B-shares shoot up amid merger talk

China's foreign-currency B shares skyrocketed Monday as talk spread that they would be merged with the larger and more fluid A-shares, the South China Morning Post reported. Shanghai's B-share index rose 9.65%, the largest gain since June 24, 2002, and just short of the daily trading limit of 10%. It ended at 98.551 points. Shenzhen's B-Share index rose 8.03% to 314.383 points, its largest single-day hike since October 10, 2003. Talk of a merger between the two share groups has been ongoing for several months but "the market now thinks this is going to happen before the end of the year," John Wang, a partner at Pinpoint Asset Management told the newspaper. B-shares were set up in Shanghai in 1990 and in Shenzhen in 1992.