A 1-kg gold brick on sale in Jinan, Shandong Province, on December 11, 2007. China's gold futures contracts began trading today at Shanghai Futures Exchange as all contracts surged higher. [newsphoto]

China's gold futures contracts launched on Wednesday all surged to the daily limit of 10 percent in minutes after the official debut trading started at 9 am at Shanghai Futures Exchange (SFE).

Seven contracts started trading on Wednesday, with the benchmark price set at 209.99 yuan ($28.8) per gram by the SFE a day earlier.

The key contract for June delivery was the first to climb 9.98 percent to 230.95 yuan per gram, followed by limit-up surges of other contracts for July-till-December delivery.

The contract size was set at 1,000 grams, larger than originally expected 300 gram in order to discourage individual investors who lacked the ability to take risks.

Shang Fulin, chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), stressed the financial nature of the precious metal and called for "joint efforts for the stable operation" of the new futures product at the launch ceremony held in Shanghai.

China is the third largest gold producer in the world, and the country's gold consumption in the manufacturing sector was about 9.2 percent of the world's total, according to Shang.