IN BRIEF (Page 17)

China Daily | Updated: 2008-01-29 07:16

Steelmaker dented

Nippon Steel Corp, the world's second-biggest steelmaker, said yesterday its pretax profit in the nine months to December inched down 0.7 percent, hit by high raw materials costs.

Nippon Steel, a big contract supplier to Toyota Motor Corp and other Japanese manufacturers, said its pretax recurring profit before special items came in at 434.67 billion yen ($4.1 billion) in April-December, compared with 437.93 billion yen a year earlier.

IPO plans

Swiss biotech investor HBM Bioventures plans to raise up to 150 million Swiss francs ($137.7 million) from its initial public offering next month, when it will also list all existing shares.

Citing a difficult market environment, the venture capitalist said the share sale was "limited" and that it would only proceed if there was sufficient demand from quality investors at a good price.

Wheat boosted

Chicago wheat futures soared almost 3 percent early yesterday as bullish US government data showed strong demand for wheat, traders said.

March wheat in electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 17 cents, or 1.82 percent, to $9.50- per bushel by 0100 GMT, after hitting $9.63.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page17)