PRESS DIGEST - Hong Kong - Jan 5

HONG KONG, Jan 5 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in Hong Kong newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

HONG KONG ECONOMIC TIMES

-- Certain banks in Hong Kong are poised to launch tighter policies over sales of investment products. Under the proposal, banking customers will be required to go through a 14-page investment survey first to determine their risk category.

APPLE DAILY

-- Residential property trading in December was the highest in the past six months, according to agency Ricacorp. Its figures showed 1,170 flats changed hands last month among the top 50 estates and prices were stablising from the earlier slide.

SING TAO DAILY

-- The government has plans to invest more than HK$2 billion within the next 10 years to develop an electronic medical database of all patients to be used by both public and private institutions.

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

-- Workers in the mainland vehicle industry face a tough winter as car plants across the country shut down for extended holiday breaks to trim production in line with falling demand.

THE STANDARD

-- Shui On Construction and Materials (0983.HK) has become the second company within five days to issue a profit warning due to impairment losses from equity investments. The firm said on Sunday its annual profit for the financial year to Dec. 31, 2008 would be hit by losses caused by the devaluation of equity investment in Shui On Land (0272.HK).

-- Hutchison Port Holdings, the container-terminal operator controlled by Hutchison Whampoa (0013.HK), could be expelled from Ecuador following delays in expanding Manta cargo port, the country's president has warned. President Rafael Correa made the threat during his weekly radio and television address on Saturday, saying a tourism and industrial area planned under Hutchison Port's jurisdiction could be removed because it said it was not meeting the investment timetable.

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