Sohu shares rebound after decline

Sohu.com Inc, operator of China's fifth most-visited website, gained the most in three weeks, rebounding after a 12 per cent decline yesterday, as analysts lifted their recommendations. Sohu climbed 3.6 per cent to $82.01 (Dh301.23) at 2.32pm New York time. It earlier jumped as much as 6.6 per cent, the biggest intraday gain since July 13. Credit Suisse raised its recommendation to "outperform", while Bocom International Holdings and Samsung Securities lifted theirs to "buy" after Sohu reported a 36 per cent increase in second-quarter profit. Sohu's online search business "will drive online advertisement revenue significantly this year" thanks to increased search traffic market share as measured by page views, Connie Gu, analyst at Bocom International said in a note Wednesday. "Online game revenue growth will be partially offset by high marketing expense in 2011." Article continues below Revenue from Sogou, Sohu's online search business, was $13.6 million for the three months ended in June, up 252 per cent from a year ago, Sohu said on Tuesday. That was also $2.6 million more than the company predicted on April 25. "Wall Street is temporarily blind," Sohu chief executive officer Charles Zhang said in his blog after company shares sank on Tuesday, Sina.com reported. Sohu's newly developed online game, its online video and search businesses "don't seem to have gotten their deserved market value", Zhang wrote in his blog, according to the report.