PRESS DIGEST - Hong Kong - Aug 25

HONG KONG Aug 25 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

HONG KONG ECONOMIC TIMES

-- Reports in major UK newspapers were quoting sources saying that the People's Bank of China had bought a one-percent stake in insurance firm Prudential (PRU.L) for 134 million pounds.

-- Second-board Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) is considered a springboard for main board listing more than it is an exchange for start-ups. More and more companies have migrated their listings as the process has become easier, leaving the number of companies on GEM at 189.

APPLE DAILY

-- Sources say the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has formed a new group dedicated to bringing in high-risk alternative investment products to the Exchange Fund portfolio in a bid to boost its investment return.

-- Bank of Communications (3328.HK) is expected to report a sharp increase in interim profits. Growth in the first six months has been forecast to be as high as 90 percent on the year, to 16.26 billion yuan.

MING PAO DAILY NEWS

-- Mainland China's big-four telecom firms are set to report their respective interim results this week. Only China Mobile (0941.HK) is expected to report better growth.

SING TAO DAILY

-- Hunan Nonferrous Metals Corp (2626.HK) saw a 75 percent drop in profit attributable to shareholders, to 74 million yuan for the six months to end-June.

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

-- A nearly threefold rise in rent will keep the Hong Kong stock market's trading hall open for the next three years -- despite only 0.5 percent of all trades being conducted on the floor.

-- Rising loan defaults and falling fee income will combine to squeeze the second-half earnings of Hong Kong banks, analysts said.

THE STANDARD

-- Bank of China (3988.HK) is expected to post the lowest earnings growth due to a diminishing net interest margin and continued markdowns in subprime-related holdings. The bank is expected to report on Thursday a mere 35 percent growth to 40.5 billion yuan, from last year's 29.54 billion yuan, according to the average forecast of analysts.

-- China's leaders are carefully considering an economic stimulus package of about 370 billion yuan, including 220 billion yuan in new expenditures and a 150 billion yuan tax cut plan, that may ease the government's monetary policy by the end of the year, China Business News reported.

TA KUNG PAO

-- China Everbright (0165.HK) group reported a 30 percent decline in its interim profit to 1.17 billion yuan. Its brokerage unit brought in decreased earnings because of the market downturn.

For Chinese newspapers, see...............[PRESS/CN]

For Taiwan newspapers, see............[PRESS/TW]