HK dollar eases slightly

The Hong Kong dollar edged lower against the US dollar on Wednesday after aggressive interventions by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in the previous session to keep the currency within its pegged trading band.

The local currency fell to as low as 7.7530 against the US dollar before pulling back to 7.7513/15 at 0917 GMT, but was still weaker than late Tuesday trade in Asia.

Minmetals cuts imports

Chinese trading firm Minmetals Corp has cut imports of iron ore by about 3 percent this year amid falling prices, company president Zhou Zhongshu said yesterday.

Minmetals is likely to import about 10 million tons of iron ore to China in 2008, according to Zhou. It imported 10.3 million tons in 2007.

Zijin to buy abroad

Zijin Mining intends to step up the pace of international acquisitions next year after holding back on acquisitions as commodity prices rose, its chief executive said yesterday.

The gold miner has diversified over the last few years into copper, and will take into account the minerals that China needs to import when evaluating targets, Chen Jinghe told reporters.

The company owns the Rio Blanco copper project in Peru, mines gold in Tajikistan, and owns a stake in a Philippine gold project. It was in talks this year for new Tajik projects and was looking at mines in Africa.

Goldman Sachs lays off staff

US bank Goldman Sachs has laid off eight analysts from its Asia Pacific ex-Japan equities research team, according to a company note obtained by Reuters yesterday.

A source familiar with the matter said the cuts were in line with the firm's decision to reduce its headcount by about 10 percent globally.

Goldman will drop coverage of 38 firms as a result of the move, including Hynix Semiconductor, LG Electronics, Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Clear Media, the note said.

New Everbright president

Luo Zhefu, a director and vice president with the China Construction Bank, will become president and a vice chairman of China Everbright Group, two banking sources said yesterday.

China Everbright Group, a financial conglomerate, has applied for an initial public offering for its banking unit, China Everbright Bank, and is also planning to list its brokerage arm, China Everbright Securities.

The group is also the parent company of China Everbright Ltd and China Everbright International.

Reuters

(HK Edition 11/13/2008 page2)