SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China is currently in the process of revising its foreign investment catalogue to expand the number of sectors for which foreign investment is encouraged or permitted, a senior official said on Monday.

Liu Yajun, Director-General of the Ministry of Commerce’s Foreign Investment Department, told a conference in Shanghai that the revised catalogue would decrease the number of sectors that are restricted or off limits for foreign investors.

SHANGHAI, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Citic Securities Co (600030.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz),
China’s biggest-listed brokerage, posted a worse-than-expected 51
percent slump in second-quarter profit, as a tumble in the stock
market hurt income from trading commissions and propriety
trading, a source with direct knowledge of the figures said.

The prospects of China’s brokerage industry appear dim as
China’s stock market has shown signs of weakness after a July
rebound, reflecting investor concern over a slowing economy.

SHANGHAI, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Aluminium Corp of China Ltd
(2600.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) aims to build a complete industry chain by buying
into rare earth, coal and iron ore operations as margins for
its core business remain under pressure on ample global
supplies.

Chairman Xiong Weiping of the world’s biggest aluminium
producer by market value, widely know as Chalco, told reporters
that the Hong Kong-listed firm was well placed to expand into
compatible materials production after reporting on Monday a
loss in the second quarter. [ID:nTOE67N00S]

SHANGHAI/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Rio Tinto (RIO.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) CEO Tom Albanese said the miner would keep seeking regulatory approval for a $116 billion joint venture with BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) after a report that the deal faces collapse.

Global miners BHP and Rio expect the iron ore joint venture in Western Australia will fail to get regulatory approval, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Friday.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Aug 18 (Reuters) – Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by market
value, on Wednesday obtained regulatory approval for its plan to
issue up to 25 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in convertible bonds
in Shanghai.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission’s (CSRC) Public
Offering Review Committee has given the issue the green light,
the agency announced in a statement on its website
(www.csrc.gov.cn).

SHANGHAI, Aug 6 (Reuters) – China Everbright Bank, looking
to raise around $3 billion in its Shanghai IPO, has put its
preliminary IPO price at a modest 3.0-3.3 yuan ($0.44-$0.49)
per share range, setting the stage for a strong reception for
what could be China’s second-biggest offering this year.

Everbright’s initial public offering of almost 6.1 billion
shares is expected to face a much warmer welcome than the
mega-IPO launched by the Agricultural Bank of China
(601288.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)(1288.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) just a month ago, helped by better market
conditions.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese mutual funds have raised their recommended allocation to equities sharply, betting Beijing will ease tightening measures on signs of an economic slowdown, the latest monthly Reuters poll of fund managers shows.

The funds raised their average suggested weighting for stocks within a balanced portfolio to 80 percent from 74.4 percent last month, the first increase since February, according to the poll of nine China-based funds taken between July 23 and July 29.

SHANGHAI, July 30 (Reuters) – U.S. private equity giant the
Carlyle Group [CYL.UL] said on Friday it had received 2.4
billion yuan ($354 million) in commitments for its Beijing-based
yuan-denominated fund, and would begin making investments in
large growth companies.

Carlyle has set up a joint venture with Beijing State-owned
Capital Operation and Management Center, the city’s biggest
government-owned company, to help manage the Beijing RMB Fund,
which aims to raise 5 billion yuan ($739 million), according to
a statement.

SHANGHAI, July 16 (Reuters) – Shanghai copper edged up on
Friday while London prices slipped, as concerns over the
prospects for the global economy continued to dominate
sentiment, with prices expected to remain stuck in tight
ranges. China will stick with policies that cooled economic growth last quarter and will keep faith with the euro despite Europe's debt problems, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said. [ID:nTOE66F038] New U.S. claims for jobless aid tumbled to a near two-year low last week, but a modest gain in industrial output and a third monthly drop in wholesale prices in June confirmed a slackening in the economy's recovery. [ID:nN15208925] "The market is not very enthusiastic about these data," said a Shanghai-based trader. "We are likely to see prices move in a narrow range for a while in the absence of earth-shattering news." Shanghai's benchmark third-month copper futures contract SCFc3 closed up 0.5 percent to 53,120 yuan a tonne, down 1.1 percent from a week earlier. Prices have been moving in a range of barely 1,400 yuan in the past week. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 edged down $10 to $6,670 by 0701 GMT, on course for a 1.3-percent weekly loss. Volumes are thin at the LME, with a total of just above 1,300 lots in the Asian trading hours, or roughly two thirds of the volume on a typical day. "It is quiet, volumes are extremely low. Both our commodity brokers as well as our mining analysts believe that this is only the calm before the storm," said MF Global in a research note on fund flows in the mining industry. "Fund flows still don't look supportive of commodity prices, while volumes tend to be lower before big moves." "If we take copper as an example then a move below $6,400 could trigger a sharp adjustment to $6,000 or below... the catalyst seems unclear, but it is likely to be macro and could well relate to the euro again." Shanghai copper stood at a premium of 242 yuan over LME copper. For a graphic of the Shanghai-LME arbitrage, click: here Copper stocks in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose by 2 percent from a week earlier to 120,238 tonnes, the exchange said on Friday.[ID:nBJD000015] "There is no clear direction for metals in the short term. Investors are a bit lost, not sure where the economy is going," said Li Rong, an analyst at Great Wall Futures, adding that Shanghai copper is likely to move in a range of 52,000 yuan to 54,000 yuan a tonne. But Li said trading is still active in the Shanghai market, as day traders seek chances in the less volatile price moves. More than 80 percent of the volume is day trading, he estimated. The market is eyeing the U.S. consumer price reading for June and the Reuters-University of Michigan business sentiment survey for July, due later in the day, for further cues on the health of the world's largest economy. LME copper MCU3=LX is expected to remain trendless for one more trading session, but with a likelihood to return to the wave "a" low at $6,560 per tonne to complete a downward wave "c", according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. [TECH/C] For a graphic showing the 24-hour copper technical outlook: here OZ Minerals (OZL.AX: Quote, Profile, Research), Australia's third-largest copper concentrates supplier, plans to buy assets that could more than double its copper concentrate production as output at its existing mines declines, and to cash in on current demand for the commodity. [ID:nSGE66E0MH] Base metals prices at 0701 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2009 YTD pct chg LME Cu 6670.00 -10.00 -0.15 7375.00 -9.56 SHFE Cu* 53120.00 250.00 +0.47 59900.00 -11.32 LME Alum 2025.00 7.00 +0.35 2230.00 -9.19 SHFE Alum* 15010.00 115.00 +0.77 17160.00 -12.53 COMEX Cu** 300.50 0.00 +0.00 332.75 -9.69 LME Zinc 1836.00 26.00 +1.44 2560.00 -28.28 SHFE Zinc 15230.00 105.00 +0.69 21195.00 -28.14 LME Nickel 19320.00 -80.00 -0.41 18525.00 4.29 LME Lead 1809.00 11.00 +0.61 2432.00 -25.62 LME Tin 18098.00 148.00 +0.82 16950.00 6.77 LME/Shanghai arb^ -242 Dollar/yuan 6.7759 \ 6.7767 ** 1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contact month for SHFE aluminium, copper and zinc ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE third month (Editing by Himani Sarkar)

SHANGHAI, July 15 (Reuters) – Agricultural Bank of China’s
(601288.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) record $22 billion IPO made a lacklustre debut in
Shanghai, underscoring the challenges ahead for China’s markets
as other big banks look to tap investors for billions of
dollars.

AgBank’s listing completes its transformation from
technical insolvency to a sprawling giant with assets of close
to $1.4 trillion as of March and a customer base of 320
million, larger than the population of the United States.