MNI China Press Digest Aug 26: Guangdong, CSRC, Yuan

Highlights from Chinese press reports on Monday:

• Guangdong saw fixed asset investment fall 1.9% y/y during January to July, but rose 5.7% when excluding a 16.9% drop in real-estate investment, the province’s statistics department has reported. Infrastructure investment increased 0.3%, while the industrial sector went up 14.0% with high-tech increasing 18.0%. Industrial enterprises' added value reached CNY2.3 trillion, up 5.7% y/y, with output of new energy vehicles, smart phones, integrated circuits, and industrial robots growing by 24.8%, 19.2%, 30.5%, and 32.0%. The province's total retail sales hit CNY2.73 trillion, a y/y increase of 1.0%.
• China’s top securities watchdog has urged institutional investors to strengthen buyer power and help investors obtain reasonable returns to improve capital market confidence, Securities Times reported citing a recent meeting. The CSRC and major investors discussed deepening reforms to encourage long-term investment, including improvements to accounting, taxation and other incentive mechanisms. Investors proposed support for more tech firm listings and to guide public companies to increase dividends and buybacks, the newspaper said.
• The yuan’s share of global payments reached 4.74% in July, a record high, ranking as the fourth most active world currency for the ninth consecutive month, Securities Daily reported citing data by Swift. The yuan’s share of trade financing reached 6%, second to the U.S. dollar and surpassing the euro for the second month. The currency's growth was due to increased trade volumes, stable economic fundamentals and the two-way opening of the country’s financial market, the newspaper said, citing Chao Zhen, researcher at Bank of China Hainan Financial Research Institute.