Employees tie ribbons onto bottles of Moutai baijiu on the production line at the Kweichow Moutai Co. factory in the town of Maotai in Renhuai, Guizhou province, China, on Dec 14, 2017. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)

Chinese liquor giant Kweichow Moutai Co. briefly overtook Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) as the nation’s biggest stock by market value.

The distiller, which makes baijiu out of sorghum and wheat from southwest China, saw its market capitalization surpass that of ICBC during Friday trade before closing slightly behind at 1.809 trillion yuan (US$256 billion), versus ICBC’s 1.813 trillion yuan. Moutai’s stock finished up 1.9 percent, hitting a fresh record high.

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Moutai’s rally is notable at a time distillers globally are grappling with restaurant shutdowns and curbs on social gatherings as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Its ability to keep raising retail prices has encouraged investors and allowed the company’s stock to keep rising. Its share price is the highest in China, ending Friday at 1,439.84 yuan apiece.

In contrast, ICBC has been weighed down by the prospect of narrower margins as China pushes for lower borrowing costs to bolster the economy. The company saw its slowest profit growth since 2018 in the first quarter, and the government this week called on the financial industry to sacrifice 1.5 trillion yuan of profit this year to support China’s economy.

Moutai, which is trading barely 1 percent below the consensus target price, remains one of China’s highest-rated stocks onshore with 89 percent of analysts giving it a buy recommendation.

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