Yicai Global) Sept. 4 -- Tianshan Animal Husbandry Bio-engineering's stock price continued surging today even though the Shenzhen Stock Exchange said that it is keeping an eye on the unprofitable Chinese cattle and sheep breeding company whose shares have more than quadrupled over the past nine trading days.

Tianshan's equity price [SHE: 300313] jumped as much as 17.4 percent to CNY27.20 (USD4) this afternoon, after which it was about 3.9 percent up. The stock has become the biggest gainer since the ChiNext board kicked off a new registration-based initial public offering system on Aug. 24.

The agricultural firm poses an exceptionally high price-to-earnings ratio for its sector, the SZSE said in a statement on WeChat yesterday.

The unhinged stock price rally is not linked to the company's fundamentals so investors should increase their risk awareness, said the bourse. The SZSE will monitor for any abnormal transactions or violations and report to the China Securities Regulatory Commission, it added.

What reveals the irrational hype is that all of Tianshan's shares have exchanged hands nearly twice over the past nine trading days and some 97 percent of the traders are retail investors, according to the bourse.

Tianshan made a CNY7.6 million (USD1.1 million) loss in the first half, according to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region-based firm's earnings report. Since 2015, the company has made losses almost every year.

One thing that could explain the rally is China's rising beef prices. Last month, prices of the red meat rose over 14 percent to CNY83.66 per kilogram from a month earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

However, Tianshan only set up a unit for meat production in May and the subsidiary's cattle inventory, which tallies less than 600, is not yet ready for slaughter.

Editor: Emmi Laine