UPDATE 1-PRESS DIGEST - China - April 24
(Combines items)
BEIJING/SHANGHAI, April 24 (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 DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)
-- Foreign food producers who want to sell their products to China might have to register with China's inspection and quarantine authorities every four years. Currently, only foreign meat products manufacturers need to register.
-- Chinese steelmakers reported a combined loss of 3.3 billion yuan for the first quarter of 2009 as oversupply put pressure on product prices, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) said.
CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL
-- China's banking regulator will step up supervision of financial institutions to make sure that bank lending will be invested in the real economy, said Liu Chunhang, head of the statistics division of the regulatory body.
-- The registered unemployment rate in Chinese cities and towns rose to 4.3 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from 4.2 percent at the end of 2009, said Yin Chengji, spokesman for the country's human resources and social securities ministry.
SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS
-- The 1,311 domestically listed Chinese companies that have released their annual financial reports booked a combined net profit of 733 billion yuan ($107.4 billion) last year, down 16.7 percent from a year earlier, official data showed.
-- China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is working out detailed guidelines to help bolster auto and motorcycle sales in rural areas, said Zhang Xiangmu, head of the ministry's industry and information division.
-- Xi'an Aircraft International Corp (000768.SZ) said it expected a 50 to 100 percent slump in net profit for the first half because of falling demand for aircraft. The company provides aircraft components to Airbus and Boeing Co (BA.N).
SECURITIES TIMES
-- An unnamed official from the Chinese securities regulator said he had not heard about the resumption of initial public offerings in the near term, denying market rumours that Everbright Securities will be listed in mid-May.
-- The outlook for China's housing market remains murky because of uncertainties facing the country's economy, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank, said. Housing prices were showing a downtrend for the first half but the market may warm up in the second half, it said.
-- China's steel industry posted a 770 million yuan loss in the first two months, compared with a 25.5 billion yuan of profit a year earlier, said Jia Yinsong, an official with the raw material division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. ($1=6.826 Yuan) (Compiled by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
