PARIS, April 3 (Reuters) - Shares in French construction materials company St Gobain rose on Wednesday, which traders and fund managers attributed to media reports of a possible sale of an asset to a Chinese company.
St Gobain's shares were up 3.5 percent by 0730 GMT, following French media reports that St Gobain was considering the sale of a 60 percent stake in its Pont-A-Mousson unit to Chinese company XinXing Ductile Iron Pipes.
"The market would view this sale positively, since Pont-A-Mousson is one of St Gobain's underpeforming units, having been hit by competition from Chinese and Indian rivals," Roche Brune Asset Management fund manager Gregoire Laverne said.
A spokeswoman at St Gobain had no immediate comment to make on the matter. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Michel Rose)