UPDATE 1-PRESS DIGEST - China - May 23
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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, May 23 (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.
CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL
-- China Minsheng Banking Corp (600016.SS) said an auction of 134.4 million shares it holds in Haitong Securities (600837.SS), China's third-largest brokerage, was called off due to a lack of bidders.
-- The Shenzhen Stock Exchange is studying the possibility of raising the threshold for trading on its planned second board for start-up firms, and limiting participation by small-scale investors, an exchange official said.
-- China should establish special tax policies toward private equity funds, an official with the State Administration of Taxation said, while a Finance Ministry official said tax policies toward venture capital and private equity should be improved.
SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS
-- Prices of iron ore in China rose 5 percent in mid-May from the beginning of the month, while cement prices are facing upward pressure due to rising costs, the Commerce Ministry said.
-- Angang Steel Group plans to build a project with more than 10 million tonnes of capacity in southern Fujian province with local steel mill Fujian Sangang, the group's general manager Zhang Xiaogang said.
-- China had 583 million mobile phone users and 360 million fixed-line telephone users as of the end of April.
CHINA BUSINESS NEWS
-- China National Chemical Corp incurred 1.2 billion yuan ($173 million) in losses from last week's earthquake, with 43 employees killed, 31 missing and 351 injured.
FINANCIAL NEWS
-- The banking regulator offered to speed up the approval process to allow joint-stock banks to provide financial services in areas of quake-stricken Sichuan province. Tianjin-based Bohai Bank, Shanghai Bank and Chongqing Bank all won approval.
CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)
-- Sixty-five cultural relics under state protection and 119 under provincial protection in Sichuan province were severely damaged in last Monday's earthquake, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said.
-- A man was detained for spreading online rumors about earthquakes in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He posted an online message saying that quakes of at least magnitude 7 would hit northwestern Shaanxi and Gansu provinces within two weeks.
PEOPLE'S DAILY
-- The Communist Party's Political Bureau, the party's top leadership, had a meeting on Thursday, calling for all party members to contribute to earthquake relief efforts.
-- President Hu Jintao visited several tent factories on Thursday in Zhejiang, telling manufacturers to redouble efforts to provide adequate tents to the quake-hit regions. Tents are among the most urgently needed items in Sichuan.
-- About 21.4 billion yuan of quake-relief funds were donated by Thursday from people and organisations at home and abroad and about 2 billion yuan had been wired to the disaster-hit regions. ($1=6.942 Yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Ken Wills and Edmund Klamann)
