Stocks surge in first-day transactions

Optimistic investors take cue from strong holiday retail, tourism figures

Chinese stocks rallied on Thursday amid positive trading sentiment buoyed by robust tourism and consumption data over the Lunar New Year holiday and stabilizing global equity markets following previous steep selloffs.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surged 2.17 percent to 3268.56 points at the close on the first trading day of the Year of the Dog. The gain was led by rallies in airline, liquor and food stocks.