SHANGHAI - Stocks on the Chinese mainland rose the most in two weeks on Sept 7.

The advance came after the China Securities Journal said the central bank may ease monetary policy, Greece pledged to speed up austerity measures and service industries in the United States expanded unexpectedly.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) and China Vanke Co led gains after the newspaper said policy easing may happen over the next several months.

SAIC Motor Corp, the nation's biggest listed automaker, advanced 3.6 percent after sales increased. Baoshan Iron & Steel Co jumped the most in two weeks after the same newspaper said the government will support parts of the steel industry.

"The speculation on easing monetary policy is prevailing in the market and caused the stock rebound," said Li Jun, a strategist at Central China Securities Co in Shanghai. "That may get support from the inflation data later this week."

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.8 percent to 2516.09, the most since Aug 25. The index had retreated 3.8 percent in the past four days. The CSI 300 Index climbed 2.1 percent to 2779.09.

The Shanghai gauge has slumped 10 percent this year as the central bank raised interest rates five times and ordered lenders to set aside more cash as deposit reserves 12 times since the start of 2010 to fight inflation. It is valued at 11.6 times estimated earnings after valuation fell to a record low on Tuesday, according to daily data compiled by Bloomberg.

ICBC, the world's largest bank by market value, added 1.2 percent to 4.12 yuan (64 US cents). China Construction Bank Corp advanced 0.9 percent to 4.54 yuan. China Vanke, the mainland's biggest developer by market value, climbed 1.5 percent to 8.12 yuan.

China's central bank may add cash to the market by buying bills from banks in open market operations or cutting the required-reserve ratio for banks, the China Securities Journal said in a commentary. Inflation may drop, reducing the need for reserve-ratio increases, the newspaper said.

China will release inflation data for August on Sept 9.

Consumer-price gains may have slowed to 6.2 percent last month from a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July, according to the median estimate of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

In the US, service industries unexpectedly expanded at a faster pace in August, easing concern that the biggest part of the nation's economy was slumping. The Institute for Supply Management's index of non-manufacturing businesses increased to 53.3 last month from 52.7 in July. Economists forecast the gauge would drop to 51, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

Bloomberg News