SM Prime Holdings Inc., the largest Philippine shopping-mall operator, advanced the most in more than two months on optimism its expansion in China will boost earnings after the world’s third-biggest economy kept its growth target.

SM Prime rose 4.1 percent to P7.60 in yesterday’s trading, set for its biggest gain since December 17. The stock is the fifth-biggest gainer in the main Philippine Stock Exchange index, which advanced 2.1 percent.

Premier Wen Jiabao said China will “significantly increase” investment in 2009, boosting efforts to meet the 8-percent economic growth target that it says is needed to protect jobs. SM Prime acquired three malls in China in 2007 to cut its dependence on the Philippines, where it has 33 malls.

“China is doing all it can to meet its target,” said Olan Caperina, who helps oversee about US$  6.7 billion at BPI Asset Management Inc. “This will benefit SM Prime’s malls in China and will be good for the company’s plan of building that business over the long term.”

SM Prime bought the three shopping malls in China for US$  252 million to gain a foothold in a market that’s 23 times the USUS$  144-billion Philippine economy. The malls it acquired are owned by the family of Henry Sy, SM Prime’s founder.