IN BRIEF (Page 13)

Equities firm up, led by realtors

The benchmark stock index rose on Tuesday, led by developers and insurers, after a central bank official said there's no need for new measures to cool the property market. The Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5 percent, to close at 3069.14.

Passenger car sales rise 55%

Domestic passenger-car sales rose 55 percent in February from a year earlier to 942,900 units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Tuesday. Total vehicle sales, which include buses and trucks, rose 46 percent to 1.21 million.

Publisher to float shares

China Publishing Group plans to raise as much as 1.8 billion yuan ($264 million) in an initial public offering in Shanghai by the end of this year, said Li Chunlin, assistant to the company's president.

Bloomberg News

(China Daily 03/10/2010 page13)