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By Belinda Cao - Wed Mar 21 20:51:08 GMT 2012

Chinese stocks listed in the U.S. climbed for the first time in four days, led by Internet companies, as China moves to bolster credit growth and ward off a worsening economic slowdown.

The Bloomberg China-US Equity Index (CH55BN) of the most-traded Chinese shares in the U.S. added 1.2 percent to 104.66 yesterday in New York, rebounding from an eight-day low. NetEase.com Inc. (NTES), the nations second largest online games operator, surged to a record after renewing its license for World of WarCraft in China. Online book seller E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (DANG) jumped the most in a week, while Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. traded at the highest premium over its Hong Kong stock in four days.

The Peoples Bank of China announced yesterday it will expand a cut to reserve-requirement ratios to more branches of Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. from March 25. A total 23 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) has been freed up for loans by the moves, the central bank said. Data from home prices to retail sales signal that growth in the worlds largest exporter is slowing. Gross domestic product in the last three months of 2011 rose the least in ten quarters amid Europes debt crisis.

China will continue to be in an easing mode because of the slowdown they are having, and they are concerned about a hard landing, Dave Lutz, head of exchange-traded fund trading and strategy at Baltimore-based Stifel Nicolaus & Co., said by phone yesterday. The PBOC is nimble enough to force liquidity all the way through the system to help them mitigate a slowdown. There is an excellent chance for the rally in Chinese stocks so far this year to continue.

Chinas central bank has lowered the amount that must be kept in reserves by lenders twice since December and has kept interest rates on hold since July. The reserve ratio will be cut by 2 percentage points for 379 branches of Agricultural Bank, the nations third-largest lender, expanding a trial that previously lowered requirements for 563 branches in eight provinces, the PBOC said yesterday.

The iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund, the biggest Chinese exchange-traded fund in the U.S., advanced 0.4 percent to $37.42, snapping a three-day slump. The Standard & Poors 500 Index (SPX) slid for a second day, falling 0.2 percent to 1,402.89.

American depositary deposits of NetEase climbed 3.2 percent to $58.11, the highest price since they started trading in June 2000, data compiled by Bloomberg show. NetEases ADRs have increased 30 percent this year.

Beijing-based NetEase and Blizzard Entertainment Inc., owned by Santa Monica, California-based Activision Blizzard Entertainment Inc., renewed a license for NetEase to operate the World of WarCraft online multiplayer game in mainland China, the two companies said in a joint statement on March 20.

The license renewal for the most popular three-dimensional online game in China removes a key overhang on the stock, Richard Ji, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Morgan Stanley said in a research note yesterday.

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Stocks Rebound in N.Y. on Bank Credit Easing: China Overnight