PRESS DIGEST - China - Sept 3

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Wednesday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- A senior economist with the State Information Centre, a government think-tank, estimated China's annual consumer price inflation rate in August fell to 6 percent or less for the first time in a year, reflecting an easing in food increases and a slowing economy. -- Foreign insurers and their joint ventures will have a combined 10 percent market share in China by 2011 when the total number of foreign insurers and insurance ventures will reach 70, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey.

-- Ku6.com, a video-sharing site, plans to become China's first listed Internet company focusing on video-sharing services after it begins to earn a profit next year, its chief executive Li Shanyou said.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- Cai Qi, the Mayor of Hangzhou, a tourist city in eastern China near Shanghai, reaffirmed the local government's plan to launch a 20 billion yuan ($2.93 billion) industrial investment fund, with an initial fund-raising target of 5 billion yuan, that will in particular support the growth of high-tech companies.

-- Bank of Beijing (601169.SS), which has total assets of nearly 400 billion yuan, plans to focus its lending services on small and medium-sized enterprises and the financing needs of local communities.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- The annual rate of increase in China's consumer price index may slow to around 5 percent in August, according to estimates by experts.

-- More than 95 percent of fund products launched by Chinese banks under the country's Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) scheme, which allows clients' assets to be invested abroad, are showing losses due partly to the poor overseas market environment.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

-- HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) (0005.HK) has opened a rural banking outlet in a small town in western China's Chongqing municipality to provide lending services focusing on the agricultural sector, the second such bank run by HSBC in China.

-- China's insurance regulator has approved the launch of Cathy Insurance Company Ltd, in which two Taiwan financial firms have invested and which will be headquartered in Shanghai. ($1=6.832 Yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by edmund Klamann)