EIJING, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The following are the highlights of China's key business news from the past week:
JUNE LOCAL GOV'T BOND ISSUANCE
The monthly value of local government bonds issued in June may reach a three-year high of nearly 900 billion yuan (about 131 billion U.S. dollars).
From June 1 to 23, the country issued a total of 594.2 billion yuan in local government bonds, according to financial information provider Wind Info.
There are still local government bonds worth more than 300 billion yuan planned to be issued in the final week of this month, which may bring the monthly total to almost 900 billion yuan.
INDUSTRIAL PROFITS
Profits of China's major industrial firms fell 2.3 percent year on year in the January-May period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
The decline narrowed 1.1 percentage points from the first four months, according to the NBS.
Combined profits of industrial firms with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about 2.91 million U.S. dollars) amounted to 2.38 trillion yuan in the first five months.
KWEICHOW MOUTAI
Shares of Kweichow Moutai, China's leading liquor brand, surged to a new high on Thursday ahead of the company's cash dividend payout on Friday.
The company's shares, which opened at 985 yuan (about 143 U.S. dollars) per share, surged to a historic high of 1,001 yuan in the morning session and closed at 996.35 yuan, the company's highest closing price.
EXTERNAL LIABILITIES
China's external liabilities climbed 4.6 percent by the end of March from the end of 2018.
The volume came in at 5.43 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).
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