Shares in tanker giant China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES) surged by more than 8% on Tuesday after the company revealed strong preliminary results for 2019 and last quarter.

The Shanghai-listed company - which owns around 50 VLCCs - closed at CNY 6.89 per share, up from CNY 6.37 last Friday. Monday was a public holiday in China.

Late last week, CMES said its net profits for the first quarter would amount to somewhere between CNY 1.2bn