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Major meetings may boost key index

Shanghai stocks may rise this week as investors anticipate the central government will announce more investment plans to boost economy during the annual legislature conferences to be held from March 3 and 5.

Shanghai's key stock index fell 0.7 percent last week.

The National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will meet to finalize details of the country's new Five-Year-Plan from 2011 to 2015. The market hopes that the government will unveil plans to invest in several areas including companies related to consumption and newly-emerging industries.

"Policy makers seem to favor companies in new energy, advanced industrial material and environmental protection and their share prices have corrected when the market fell recently," Shanghai Securities wrote in a note. "They are worthy of investments."

You Wenfeng, an analyst at GF Securities, agreed and added that high oil prices will also be good news for companies in new energy and energy saving sectors.

With the situation in Libya worsening, oil for April delivery closed at nearly US$98 a barrel on New York last Friday, about 13 percent higher from the previous week.

Li Jun, an analyst at Central China Securities, said sectors related to consumption may also benefit as the government aims to lift the living standard of the people.

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