PRESS DIGEST - China - Dec 1

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Monday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- A total of 23.3 billion shares currently worth 174.9 billion yuan ($25.6 billion) are due to become freely tradable in December as lock-up periods for institutional investors expire. That is the second-biggest monthly number this year; in August, 27.6 billion shares became freely tradable.

-- A group of 10 well-known academics has prepared a report suggesting steps to stimulate the stock market, including measures to reduce pressure from sales of shares made tradeable by the expiry of lock-up periods, the creation of a fund to stabilise the market, and the use of some of China's foreign reserves to buy Hong Kong-listed H shares.

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- Securities companies can from today apply to conduct margin lending and short-selling business for clients, under a trial programme announced earlier by the securities regulator.

-- Weichai Power (000338.SZ)(2338.HK) said China National Heavy Duty Truck Group had withdrawn an application to invalidate some of Weichai's patents.

-- Shenzhen Nanshan Power (000037.SZ)(200037.SZ) may have lost nearly $2 million in November on oil derivatives deals, and the losses may widen if global crude oil prices continue to fall, industry sources say. The company said late last month that it had formed a group of company officials to evaluate and address risks related to the deals.

-- China Eastern Airlines' (600115.SS)(0670.HK) financial supervisor, Luo Weide, said its 1.83 billion yuan of losses on fuel hedging deals by the end of October were not the result of speculation.

-- Trade in shares of Guangdong Midea Electric Appliances Co (000527.SZ) and washing machine maker Wuxi Little Swan (000418.SZ) is being resumed after a three-day suspension, after Midea's plan to increase its stake in Little Swan through additional purchases of shares at a low price ran into technical difficulties. Midea said it would not resume discussions on the plan for at least three months.

-- Changjiang Securities predicted China's economic growth would bottom out at the end of this year or early next, implying the stock market would stage a medium-sized rally at the end of the first quarter.

-- Emergency measures are needed to rescue China's stock market, and macroeconomic policies, including monetary easing, should be conducted with the market's health in mind, this newspaper said in a front-page commentary.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

-- China will further adjust policies to encourage house purchases, and revise policies making it more expensive for families to buy second homes, government and industry officials said.

FINANCIAL NEWS

-- Major Chinese banks, including China Construction Bank (0939.HK) (601939.SS), China Development Bank and Agricultural Bank of China, will add about 400 billion yuan of new loans for the rest of the year to help fund key infrastructure investment.

-- China should allow local governments to issue bonds to raise funds for investment. This can also diversify risks for the central government, said Wei Jianing, a senior researcher for the Development Research Centre, a key cabinet think-tank.

-- China should not loosen monetary policy too much and should still keep an eye on the issue of excess liquidity, Xu Nuojin, vice president of the Guangdong branch of the People's Bank of China, wrote in the paper. He also said that China should keep the yuan's exchange rate stable.

CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)

-- More than 775,000 people competed for 13,566 government jobs yesterday, making civil service one of the hottest jobs in the country amid the current financial crisis.

-- The Chinese government brought back 1,400 tourists stranded in Thailand via five chartered flights and another 1,000 Chinese are still stuck in the country, where anti-government protesters had taken over the main Bangkok airport.

PEOPLE'S DAILY

-- Premier Wen Jiabao met with HIV-infected individuals and AIDS orphans in Fuyang in eastern Anhui province on Sunday. Wen said HIV/AIDS control and prevention are very important as they are linked to the lives and health of the public. ($1 = 6.83 yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Edmund Klamann)