China-focused exchange-traded funds were on pace for their best day on record after a state-owned newspaper urged investors to purchase equities, saying, according to a translation, that a "healthy bull market" is good for the world's second-largest economy, attempting to shake off the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The largest China ETF, the iShares MSCI China ETF [S: MCHI], was up 6.8% at midday, its best performance in its nine-year history. The SPDR S&P China ETF /zigman2/quotes/209472236/composite GXC +2.09% was 7.1% higher, and the Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China fund /zigman2/quotes/205950053/composite ASHR +1.07% soared 10.6%, also an all-time high, back to 2013. Some funds that focus on particular sectors of the economy did even better: the Global X MSCI China Information Technology /zigman2/quotes/201468316/composite CHIK +0.92% was nearly 12% higher. In the year to date, the iShares fund and the SPDR fund have both gained a little less than 14%, while the Xtrackers product is up 16.4%, compared to a 2% decline for the S&P 500 /zigman2/quotes/210599714/realtime SPX +0.36% . On Monday, the Shanghai Composite Index closed 5.7% higher.