China In-Focus — Asian giant’s stocks rise; Shandong port trader secures rare Russian oil deal; Toyota’s revenue slides

China In-Focus — Asian giant’s stocks rise; Shandong port trader secures rare Russian oil deal; Toyota’s revenue slides

BEIJING: China stocks rose on Wednesday as investors took comfort in signs of lower domestic COVID-19 infections, while US President Joe Biden’s decision to consider eliminating Trump-era tariffs on Beijing further stoked risk appetite. The CSI300 index was up 2 percent at 4,000.00 points, by the end of the morning session, while the Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.6 percent to 3,085.43 points. The Hang Seng index added 1.7 percent to 19,971.18 points. The Hong Kong China Enterprises Index gained 2.4 percent to 6,818.91. China’s Shandong Port International Trade Group, a provincial government-backed commodities and oil trader, has secured a rare shipment of Russian crude oil for arrival into east China this month, according to traders and a company statement. This marks the first such deal under which a Chinese firm other than Beijing’s national oil giants has directly bought oil from a Russian supplier, as global oil majors and traders phase-out dealing in Russian oil to pressure Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow has called a “special operation.” In a statement posted on the Shandong Port group’s official Wechat account on Tuesday, the company said a 100,000 ton (730,000 barrel) crude oil shipment loaded in recent days was