BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer market has shown signs of accelerated recovery during the five-day May Day holiday that ended Tuesday amid further containment of COVID-19, the Ministry of Commerce said Friday.

Online sales of physical commodities surged 36.3 percent year on year during the period as the COVID-19 epidemic spurred fast growth of online consumption, according to Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Bingnan.

Also increasing are sales of consumer durables such as automobiles and home appliances that were restrained in the early stage of the epidemic, Wang said.

During the holiday, major automobile companies in municipalities of Shanghai and Chongqing as well as Zhejiang Province monitored by the ministry saw their sales expand 49.6 percent, 28.5 percent and 8.8 percent, respectively.

As the country's consumption was hammered by COVID-19, livestreaming has become a popular choice for businesses to promote their products, according to Wang.

E-commerce livestreaming sessions doubled during the holiday while the quantity of goods promoted via livestreaming increased 4.7 times compared with the same period last year.