China Life buys stake in listing bank
China Life Insurance, China’s top life insurer, paid 392 million yuan (£26 million) for 1.75 per cent of Industrial Bank ahead of the lender’s planned 10 billion yuan Shanghai listing. At the same time shares in China Life rose 1.29 per cent to a new high of HK$14.08 as investors anticipated strong first-half earnings on the back of new business from China’s growing middle class.
Applied Materials’ results impress
Applied Materials, the world’s biggest supplier of equipment to make microchips, posted a 39 per cent rise in quarterly profits, thanks to higher demand and improved margins. The better-than-expected results sent the company’s shares up about 2 per cent to $16.00. Net profit in the third fiscal quarter was $512 million, up from $369.6 million the same period last year.
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Delphi reports first-half loss of $2.6bn
Delphi, America’s biggest car parts supplier, reported a loss of $2.6 billion (£1.4 billion) for the first half of this year, which was the result largely of the cost of employee buyout and early retirement packages that are key to the bankruptcy reorganisation at the company. The loss was more than three times the $741 million that Delphi lost in the first half of 2005.
Venezuela sells Texas refinery stake
Venezuela has agreed to sell its minority share in the Lyondell-Citgo refinery in Texas to Lyondell Chemical for about $1.3 billion (£685 million), the Venezuelan Oil Minister said. Rafael Ramirez said that the sale of the 41 per cent stake in the refinery had been finalised after two years of studying and negotiating the deal.