(Yicai Global) March 11 -- Shares of BOC International China surged to a historic high after the Hong Kong unit of Bank of China became the first Chinese brokerage to set up a chief scientist position, hiring a former Baidu executive. 

BOC International's stock price [SH:601696] jumped by the daily limit of 10 percent to CNY20.45 (USD2.94) this morning. Its market cap was at CNY56.8 billion (USD8.2 billion). Founded in 2002, the unit was listed in Shanghai in late February. 

The brokerage has appointed Ge Hao as its chief scientists, it said in a statement yesterday. Born in 1976, Ge has earlier served Beijing-based search engine giant Baidu as a chief architect and Big Data director. He got his master's degree in software engineering from Peking University.

In late 2018, the China Securities Regulatory Commission started assessing brokerages also based on their information technology investment, which has sparked increased efforts on that front. More than 10 domestic securities firms hired their first IT chiefs the following year.

Editor: Emmi Laine