Morgan Stanley to buy 20 pct of China futures firm

BEIJING, March 8 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has reached an agreement to buy a 20 percent stake of China's commodity futures trading company Jinrui Futures Co, a senior Chinese provincial official said on Saturday.

The U.S. investment bank will participate in a private placement of shares by Jinrui, a unit of China's largest copper smelter, Jiangxi Copper (0358.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (600362.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), vice governor Zhao Zhiyong of the central province of Jiangxi, told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual session of China's parliament in Beijing.

No financial terms of the deal were immediately available.

Shenzhen-based Jinrui Futures Co has a small paid-in capital of 100 million yuan but its annual trading turnover of commodity futures stands at 800 billion yuan ($113 billion) -- making it one of China's most active futures traders, according to its Web site (http://www.jrqh.com.cn). (Reporting by Pily Zhou; Writing by Lu Jianxin; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)