Renren shares gain for 8 straight days in New York

Renren (RENN.NYSE), China’s largest social-networking website by page views, rose to its highest level in a month in New York yesterday after eight consecutive days of appreciation, Bloomberg reported. The company’s shares closed at US$11.33, up 5.9% for the day. Renren’s shares hit a 52-week low of US$6.13 a share on June 24 but went on to post the company’s longest winning streak since the company listed. Renren’s rise occurred in the context of a wider recovery in Chinese internet stocks, including Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ), Sina (SINA.NASDAQ) and Sohu.com (SOHU.NASDAQ), all of which have bounced back by at least 14% since a trough in mid-June. On June 20, Renren management said revenues increased 47% in the three months through March and said they may climb another 51% in the second quarter to US$30 million. “Renren is benefiting from changing overall market sentiment – the bigger Chinese Internet names have gone up 20 to 40 percent in the past two to three weeks,” said Andy Yeung, an equity analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Yeung maintained an “outperform” rating on Renren shares with a 12-month target price of US$12.