REFILE-PRESS DIGEST - Hong Kong - Dec 28

(Refiles to fix spelling of Xingye in first item)

HONG KONG, December 28 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

HONG KONG ECONOMIC TIMES

-- Xingye Copper International Group, which was the last new stock of the year when it made its market debut yesterday, jumped 93.5 percent from its IPO price. The surge boosted other new stocks already trading in the market and reignited confidence in the overall IPO climate.

-- The employee turnover rate is at a five-year high, according to the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resources Management. It said the retail sector was worst and most of the vacancies were in the middle-management level or professional positions.

MING PAO DAILY NEWS

-- The investment return rate was 17.8 percent for an investor if he or she still owned one lot of shares from each of the 84 companies which went public this year up to yesterday. However, the rate would be 24.4 percent if these shares were all sold at closing prices on the companies' respective market debuts, according to calculations by Ming Pao.

SING TAO DAILY

-- Bank of East Asia (0023.HK) said its shareholder in Spain, Criteria CaixaCorp (CRIT.MC), would increase its holding in the bank to 8.89 percent from 4.34 percent. Bank of East Asia is to issue 78.7 million new shares worth $3.954 billion to Criteria.

-- Nearly a hundred students and their parents were affected by a suspected million-dollar plane ticket scam. Their return tickets to Britian on Cathay Pacific (0293.HK), purchased through a middle-man from a travel agency, were found to be invalid.

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

-- Cable TV has denied obstructing contractors upgrading private buildings to receive digital broadcasting signals by charging TV users additional fees.

-- A green group has demanded that listing companies include environmental evaluations in prospectuses for their initial public offerings.

THE STANDARD

-- Shanghai surpassed Hong Kong for initial stock offerings this year, with companies going public raising 417.8 billion yuan (HK$444.1 billion) compared with HK$286.9 billion here.

HONG KONG ECONOMIC JOURNAL