1. The profits of China's major industrial firms fell 4.6 percent year on year in October, worsening from the 0.1-percent decline posted in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Friday. Profits at industrial companies with annual revenues of more than 20 million yuan (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars) totaled 559.52 billion yuan in October. Dropping sales and rising costs, as well as narrowing profits in the mining and raw material sectors, contributed to the decline, said He Ping, an official with the Department of Industry at the NBS.
2. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the top securities regulator, has asked local securities companies to stop carrying on financing return swap service on the Over-the-Counter market (OTC), Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday. The daily said that many stockbrokers had got notices from the regulator that requested them to stop providing capital financing service for clients to trade stocks on Shanghai, Shenzhen and the OTC stock markets through OTC business. Analysts deem that the regulator's move aimed to call off a financing leverage formed by stock investment return swap business. The financing return swap business is an OTC derivative that is of high leverage ratio and may lead to big ups and downs of stock prices on the markets. Banning the financing return swap business is expected to help ease sharp movements of stock prices and maintain market stability, said the analysts.
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