UPDATE 1-PRESS DIGEST - China - March 18

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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 18 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Tuesday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- China will not use public housing funds to buy stocks, but will consider raising funds from the capital markets to help ease a housing shortage for low-income families, Construction Minister Qi Ji said.

-- Bosera Funds has received regulatory approval to invest in overseas capital markets under China's Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor scheme.

-- China should curb the net outflow of capital from the stock market to help reverse a slide in the benchmark stock index, said Jin Yanshi, a prominent Chinese economist.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- China's central bank has yet to decide whether to hike interest rates again in the near term, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- Bank of China (601988.SS) (3988.HK) will not buy into banks badly hit by the subprime debt crisis, its chairman Xiao Gang said.

-- Merchants Property Development Co (000024.SZ) has won shareholder approval to issue new shares, raising up to 8 billion yuan ($1.13 billion).

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

-- China's housing supply will remain tight for some time, keeping up pressure for further rises in housing prices, Construction Minister Qi Ji said.

FINANCIAL NEWS

-- China Construction Bank (601939.SS) and Temasek Fullerton Alpha Pte Ltd launched a project in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, to offer loans to small businesses.

CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)