PRESS DIGEST - China - July 31

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, July 31 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Friday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS

-- Bank card payment services expanded rapidly towards towns and rural areas in China in the first half.

-- Sinosure, China's only policy insurer offering export credit insurance services, said it would lower insurance fees for short-term export credit by 30 percent from the average level in 2008.

PEOPLE'S DAILY

-- The number of domestic firms rose slightly in China despite the global financial crisis. However, the country saw the largest number of closures in three years by foreign investors in the first half.

-- China suffered direct losses of about 46.5 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) from natural disasters in the first half, which was still down one-third from the average level in the same period in the past several years.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- China's Everbright Securities said it will kick off a road show for its planned A-share initial public offering in Shanghai next Monday.

-- China's big four state banks have all pledged to adjust their loan structure and step up risk control in the second half of this year.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- New lending by Chinese banks in July is likely to be less than 500 billion yuan ($73.19 billion), down sharply from 1.53 trillion yuan in June, unnamed sources said.

-- Nearly two-thirds of the 27 provinces, regions and municipalities in China that have released their first-half economic data report more than 8 percent growth in GDP.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- Chongqing Changan Automobile Co (000625.SZ) said it planned to build an auto testing ground in southwest China with total investment of 1.2 billion yuan. ($1=6.832 Yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Edmund Klamann)