THE banking and real estate sectors pushed the Shanghai stock market ahead in today's morning session.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks yuan-denominated A shares and hard-currency B shares, advanced 1.17 percent, or 67.46 points, to 5,840.85 at 11:30am.

The Shenzhen Composite Index, which covers the smaller Chinese mainland stock market, added 0.71 percent, or 10.37 points, to 1,471.79.

Turnover on the Shanghai market totaled 55.76 billion yuan (US$7.24 billion) and decliners outnumbered gainers by 555 to 311, 137 unchanged.

China Merchants Bank jumped 4.05 percent to 43.40 yuan a share after the Shenzhen-based bank said yesterday its third-quarter net income rose to 3.9 billion yuan, or 0.26 yuan a share, from 1.6 billion yuan a year earlier.

The bank's profit in the first nine months also more than doubled to 10 billion yuan, or 0.68 yuan a share, from 4.4 billion yuan, or 0.30 yuan a share the year previously, the bank said.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank rose 4.58 percent to 55 yuan and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China added 2.16 percent to 8.03 yuan.

Property developers performed strong after the state regulator denied market speculation that real estate developers would not be allowed to launch initial public offerings on the mainland markets.

China Vanke, the biggest publicly traded real estate developer in market value, gained 5.12 percent to 34.69 yuan and Poly Real Estate Group Co jumped 8.9 percent to 86 yuan.