PRESS DIGEST - China - Aug 13

BEIJING/SHANGHAI Aug 13 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Thursday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS

-- Agricultural Bank of China [AGBKC.UL], one of China's four big state lenders, posted annual growth of 218.4 percent in its investment banking business, reaching 3.6 billion yuan ($526.8 million) by the end of June. Investment banking accounted for 22 percent of the bank's total intermediary business, up from 8 percent in 2008.

-- China Development Bank, one of China's three policy banks, sold 30 billion yuan of 5-year bonds at a coupon rate of 3.55 percent.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- Yunnan Metallurgical Group has agreed to take over Alcoa Inc's (AA.N) fully owned subsidiary in Shanghai, said Dong Ying, chairman of the Chinese company. He gave no financial details of the deal.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- China should continue to allow small but steady increases in bank lending in the second half of the year rather than suddenly slamming on the brakes after lending was pushed to the limit in the first half, said Tang Shuangning, chairman of Everbright Bank.

-- Yuan-denominated bank loans in Shanghai increased by 17.1 billion yuan in July, slowing sharply from 99.9 billion yuan in June, data provided by the Shanghai branch of China's central bank showed.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- Protectionism will be a major factor affecting China's foreign trade situation and overseas demand in the second half, China's deputy commerce minister Fu Ziying said, adding that proposed curbs on tyre imports from China by the U.S. side were without factual or legal merit.

-- New bank loans in China are estimated to come to more than 3 trillion yuan in the second half, unnamed bank executives said.

CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)

--The Ministry of Health said it is launching an overhaul of illegal organ transplants at mainland hospitals. Any of the 164 medical institutions qualified to carry out organ transplants nationwide will have their licenses revoked if they cannot pass the ongoing qualification re-examination.

PEOPLE'S DAILY

-- The combined volume of provincial gross domestic product is 1.4 trillion yuan ($204.8 billion) higher than that of the national figure for the first half of this year that was issued by the National Statistics Bureau. Local governments largely assess their officials' performance on provincial GDP growth, leading to exaggerated output levels, and the discrepancy could provide a misleading view of economic trends. ($1=6.834 Yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Ken Wills and Edmund Klamann)