By Martin Mou

Shares in China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp. surged Monday on the first day of trading since the company renamed its stock to reflect its focus on duty-free shops.

Shares of China's top operator of duty-free shops closed at 140.03 yuan ($19.78) after rising by the daily trading limit of 10% on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's main board.

China Tourism Group changed its name from China International Travel Service Corp. earlier this month to highlight its ambition of tapping the recent policy tailwind for duty-free shops in China. Duty-free shops accounted for over 95% of CTG's operating income in 2019.

The stock's surge comes after Beijing last week eased regulations to further position the southern island province of Hainan as a free-trade and global tourism hub, which could push up duty-free sales there.

As a dominant player in China's duty-free market, analysts widely expect CTG will be a key beneficiary of Beijing's push to ramp up duty-free sales.

China's duty-free market accounted for just 9% of the global market in 2019, even though Chinese consumers contributed one-third of total global duty-free sales during that period, Morgan Stanley says.

The U.S. bank forecasts that China's duty-free market will more than double to $16.5 billion by 2025 due to the policy tailwind. 



  Write to Martin Mou at martin.mou@wsj.com