UPDATE 1-PRESS DIGEST - China - April 9

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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 9 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Thursday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- The City of Beijing has liberalised bank lending policies to ease interest rates for individuals who buy second homes, sources familiar with the situation said.

-- China is establishing legal guidelines for cases involving improper transactions by fund managers and brokerages that misuse information from client orders, officials from the country's top judicial bodies said.

-- The Shanghai Stock Exchange and the China Securities Index Co Ltd said on Thursday that they would list a new index consisting of shares of companies with very large market value.

-- Construction contractor China Railway Erju Co (600528.SS) said it had won contracts worth a combined 4.6 billion yuan ($673 million).

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- China's Yangtze Electric Power Co (600900.SS), operator of the Three Gorges hydroelectric dam, said on Thursday it generated 11 percent more electricity in the first quarter than a year earlier, or about 6.226 billion kilowatt hours, while Guodian Power (600795.SS) said its electricity output fell 10 percent to 13.62 billion kilowatt hours.

-- The Shanghai government plans to expand the territory of its Pudong New Area to build up an international financial and maritime transport centre in the city.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- The Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong exchange signed a cooperative agreement on Wednesday that includes information sharing and product research and development.

FINANCIAL NEWS

-- The scheme to allow yuan settlement in overseas trade will promote international trade and further free up the currency to be more broadly used around the world.

CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)

-- China is considering sending a business delegation to France for a purchasing mission after the dispute over French President Nicolas Sarkozy meeting the Dalai Lama last December.

-- China and ASEAN nations will complete their free trade area (FTA) discussions with an investment agreement to be signed this weekend in Pattaya, Thailand.

-- Two rioters were given a guilty verdict and death sentences for starting fatal fires in Lhasa in March last year.

-- China will build Asia's largest stem cell technology laboratory, said Health Minister Chen Zhu.

PEOPLE'S DAILY

-- China plans to increase grain production to 550 million tonnes by 2020, up 50 million tonnes from 2007, and maintain the area under cultivation at 1.8 billion mu (0.12 billion hectares).

-- The number of volunteer fire fighters in China has exceeded 500,000, the Public Security Ministry said. (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Edmund Klamann)