PRESS DIGEST - China - July 2

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, July 2 (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

-- Guangdong Midea Electric Appliances Co 000527.SZ will form a joint venture with Carrier Corp, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) and one of the world's largest air-conditioner makers. Midea will invest $17 million and hold a 60 percent stake in the venture.

-- Carrefour SA (CARR.PA) has purchased an additional 25 percent stake in Grandbuy Co of Guangzhou 002187.SZ for $5.8 million, raising its stake in the company to 55 percent.

-- A rise in coke exports may lead the government to raise the export tax, said Huang Jingan, chairman of China's coking industry association.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- China's Ministry of Commerce plans to sell 10,000 tonnes of pork from its reserves to meet market demand and to rotate stocks in its reserves.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- China's two main stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen have decided to waive annual listing fees for listed companies from regions hit by a devastating earthquake in southwest China on May 12, in order to assist with post-quake reconstruction.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

-- Rising costs pushed nearly one-third of large factories in southern China's Guangdong province, a major manufacturing hub, into the red in the first five months of this year.

-- The devastating Sichuan earthquake in May has caused more than 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) in direct economic losses, the province's vice governor Huang Xiaoxiang said. (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Edmund Klamann)