BEIJING, Nov. 14 (InfoChina) -- The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has further increased its stake in China Telecom Ltd. (HKSE: 0728, NYSE: CHA) to 9 percent through purchase on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to the statistics release by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 13.

Since September, it has invested more than one billion HK dollars in raising its interest in China Telecom from less than 5% to 9%.

At present, the bank has become the second largest shareholder of China Telecom, only after the China Telecommunications Corporation which holds 70.89%, and followed by the Guangdong Rising Assets Management Co., Ltd., holding 6.94%.

       Zhang Yu, senior telecom consultant at BDA, attributed the moves of CBA to its support to the news that China would issue 3G licenses, while DBS also upgraded the rating of China Telecom to “buy” and raised its target price from 3 HK dollars to 3.85 HK dollars.