Market rebounds

Chinese stocks rebounded more than 2 percent yesterday in response to signs that authorities are determined to support the market.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.17 percent to 3656.839 points, led by steel and coal producers.

Rising stocks in Shanghai overwhelmed losers by 815 to 66, but turnover in Shanghai A shares shrank to 108.42 billion yuan from Wednesday's 147.9 billion yuan.

Pension move

China Life Insurance Co, the nation's largest insurer, will invest 1.85 billion yuan more in its pension unit, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The Beijing-based company will directly own 87.4 percent of China Life Pension Insurance Co after the increased investment, and will pay for the investment with internal resources, the statement said.

Trial run

Kunming Iron and Steel Group Co Ltd in Yunnan province, which is equipped with energy-saving products by Toshiba, went into trial operation this week.

Developed by Toshiba and Toshiba China, the technology is capable of reducing power consumption by 26 percent, according to test results.

The technology will also be adopted by Yuntian Chemical Industrial Group Co Ltd in Kunming.

Eye on Beijing

SOHO China, a Hong Kong-listed property developer, will focus on Beijing this year by acquiring more projects from rivals in the capital, said the company's CEO Zhang Xin.

"Due to the credit crunch, there will be much more merger and acquisition opportunities this year," Zhang said while attending the opening ceremony of SOHO Sanlitun.

New credit card

Visa, the world's largest payment-card network, launched a credit card in cooperation with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Parkson Retail Group yesterday in Beijing, to improve the payment processing efficiency.

The new credit card is the first of its kind in China, dealing with the payment without touching the point of sale terminals.

Destination Dusseldorf

Air Berlin has inaugurated a new non-stop service from Beijing and Shanghai to Dusseldorf in the heart of Germany and central Europe from this month.

Initially five flights will fly a week on each route on Airbus A330 aircraft in a two-class configuration.

Appliances launched

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, a worldwide leader in securing the Internet, released five new appliances in Shanghai yesterday.

The three new UTM-1 Total Security appliances are designed to give enterprise sites of all sizes more choices to match the right solution with their security and performance needs.

Unique edition car

Sportswear manufacturer Kappa recently launched a unique edition car jointly with Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co Ltd.

The Dongfeng Citroen C2 Kappa Edition, a collaborative effort between Citroen and Kappa, features a rally look as well as soccer apparel fashion.

The sports brand said the car is the first step of Kappa's cross-design in industrial field.

Australian ore stake

Chinese iron ore and steel trader Haoning Group will take a 9.55 percent stake in Australian iron ore firm Jupiter Mines Ltd via a share placement, Jupiter said in a statement.

Haoning Group, through its subsidiary LSG Resources Pty Ltd, will pay A$3.7 million, or 0.25 cents a share, for 14.8 million Jupiter shares, and become the largest shareholder of the Australian firm, Jupiter said.

Agencies-China Daily

(China Daily 05/09/2008 page14)