SHANGHAI: Led by the heavy industry sector, China's major stock index yesterday jumped 2.2 percent to a new record high of 4,440.77.

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Finance, State-owned enterprises posted a 31.5 percent profit growth to 753.5 billion yuan in the first half of this year. Among them, steel companies had the biggest jump with 116 percent profit growth, followed by the petroleum & chemical sector with 95 percent and the machinery sector with 73.6 percent.

Analysts said China's stock market, so far untouched by the latest global market tremors, is expected to continue the upward trend because of the sound corporate earnings. But they warned the ripple effect from the global market downturn could hit in the near term.