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HK dollar dips lower
The Hong Kong dollar edged lower yesterday, but trading was confined to a narrow range ahead of a Federal Reserve interest rate decision due later in the day.
The local currency weakened to 7.7943/45 against the US dollar by 0902 GMT, down 0.03 percent from late Tuesday trade in Asia.
One dealer said there was commercial demand for the US currency, but he expected the Hong Kong dollar would find support at 7.7950.
The Hong Kong currency is pegged at 7.8 to the US dollar but can trade between 7.75 and 7.85.
In the interbank market, the volatile overnight rate hit a high of 1.40 percent early in the afternoon on month-end factors before retreating to 0.75/1.00 percent toward the market close.
China Railway profits soar
China Railway Group, the country's leading railway and highway builder, more than doubled its first-quarter earnings thanks to a construction boom to keep up with the country's surging economy.
China Railway Group reported a net profit of 524.84 million yuan for the first three months of 2008, up 150 percent from 210.0 million yuan a year earlier, according to mainland accounting standards.
The company made a good start for the year and its operating margin improved to 4 percent in the period from 1.5 percent in the previous year on the back of cost controls and a group restructuring, Morgan Stanley said in a research note.
Beijing's massive infrastructure investments laid out in its five-year economic plan ending 2010 should provide China Railway with growth opportunities, analysts said.
During the current five year plan, China will invest 1.25 trillion yuan ($178.9 billion) in railway construction and 3.8 trillion yuan in building waterways.
Coal prices rebound
China's domestic spot coal prices have rebounded toward previous highs, fueling worries about possible power shortages this summer, the peak electricity-consuming season, which is expected to be hotter than usual.
Benchmark prices at Qinhuangdao, China's top coal shipping port, for top-grade thermal coal reached 650-660 yuan ($92.93-$94.36) per ton yesterday, up from 625-635 yuan in early April. They were up 40 percent from a year earlier.
"The slack season is over earlier this year," said an analyst at a large securities firm who declined to be named, citing company policy.
Coal stocks at major power plants around the country have fallen below the safe bar of 15 days to 12 days. In some provinces, coal stocks fell to alarming levels by late April, enough for less than 7 days of use, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.
LCD module plant
Television maker TCL Corp and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world's top maker of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, have started construction of an LCD module plant in Guangdong province.
The move will help TCL strengthen its core business amid intensifying competition, a TCL spokesman said yesterday.
A Samsung spokeswoman said on Tuesday that it was Samsung's first overseas LCD contract manufacturing deal and production was scheduled to start in 2009.
Both companies declined to disclose the size of the deal.
The plant, in Huizhou city, will have an annual production of 2.33 million units in the first phase. TCL's LCD TV production capacity will be around 5 to 6 million units in 2008-2009, the TCL spokesman said.
LCD module accounts for 70 percent of the production cost of an LCD television.
Reuters
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