Shares in companies linked with Shanghai’s free trade zone rose sharply on Tuesday morning following articles in domestic media reporting officials would move to further relax investment restrictions on foreign investment in the zone. Shares in Shanghai International Port Group were up 10.7 percent in early trade, their daily limit, while shares in the Shanghai Lujiazui Finance & Trade Zone Development Co rose 7.36 percent. Shares in Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone Development Co were up over 5 percent. Domestic media quoted Shanghai municipal development research centre head Zhou Zhenhua as saying regulators might reduce the “negative list” in the zone by 40 percent. The negative list approach was widely touted as a clarification to previous vaguer guidelines restricting investment in China, but foreign investors have complained that the current list still excludes most of the industries prevented from investing in China in the past. (Reporting by Pete Sweeney; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)