Several Chinese city commercial banks have submitted their applications for an initial public offering (IPO) to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The Bank of Jiangsu is planning to raise up to CNY10 billion. The listing would be the first IPO by a city commercial bank in three years. Several other city commercial banks, including Bank of Chongqing, Bank of Shanghai, Zheshang Bank, Jiangsu Rural Commercial Bank and Bank of Tianjin, are also preparing IPOs to shore up their balance sheets as the central bank is raising the capital requirement to further mop up liquidity. China has 112 city commercial banks, which account for 6.27% of the Chinese banking sector’s assets. Three city commercial banks, Bank of Beijing, Bank of Nanjing and Bank of Ningbo, have already successfully floated shares on the A-share market.

The Hang Seng Index plans to provide investors with split-second updates of benchmark changes. The index is now only updated every 15 seconds, meaning it lags behind indexes in other major trading centers where data is often updated in real time. Index compiler Hang Seng Indexes is concerned that the move may give investors too much information. The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index is updated every six seconds and Shenzhen Stock Exchange Component Index is updated every five seconds. If the index compiler does decide to speed up updates, it will be the first change in frequency in a decade. The Hang Seng Index, launched in the 1960s, was originally only updated three times a day at 11 am, 12.30 pm and at the market close. In 1986, frequency was changed to every minute. In 1999, it changed to every 15 seconds after the government introduced the Tracker Fund.

Air China has high hopes of becoming one of the world’s top five airlines in the years to come, Chairman Kong Dong said. The airline’s fleet is expected to nearly double in the coming five years to more than 700 aircraft from the current 381. By that time, Air China will have the size of the world’s current largest carrier, which was formed out of a merger between United Airlines and Continental Airlines. Air China is already the world’s largest carrier in terms of market value with a market capitalization of USD20 billion last year. But although the airline is becoming big, it still has to become strong by gaining market share, Chairman Kong said. China’s major airlines have reaped enviable profits during the past two years thanks to a boom in domestic air traffic, but lagged behind in exploring international markets. By 2015, Air China will have a 25% share of the domestic air traffic market, up from the current 21%.

China plans to invest more than CNY1.5 trillion in the aviation industry over the next five years to meet surging demand. By 2015, the country is expected to have more than 220 commercial airports and its fleet size will expand to more than 4,500 planes, Li Jiaxiang, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said. The country currently has 175 commercial airports in operation and keeps more than 2,600 aircraft in its fleet, according to Li. China has 43 airlines, including eight privately-owned carriers. The government encourages private investment in the civil aviation sector and three new private airlines will soon submit business applications to the regulator, Li added. He predicted 450 to 500 million air passenger trips would be made annually by 2015, and the CAAC aims to expand that target to 1.5 billion by 2030. A total of 267 million air passenger trips were recorded in China last year, up 15.8% from the previous year. Chinese airlines account for 46% of passenger flights in and out of China. Li said about 130 of China’s 175 airports made a combined loss of CNY1.7 billion last year, while about CNY6 billion in subsidies were handed out between 2006-2010.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev held talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing as both countries strengthen their bilateral relations. The two sides signed a contract worth several billion U.S. dollars for long-term Kazakhstan supplies of uranium to China and a USD1 billion plan for the Export-Import Bank of China to finance construction of an oil refinery in the Kazakh city of Atyrau, on the Caspian Sea. Nazarbayev urged more Chinese investment in his country and praised the more than 1,000 companies from China already there for spurring development. China and Kazakhstan will jointly build a high-speed railway connecting the cities of Astana and Almaty, with the project to be completed in 2015, Askar Mamin, the President of Kazakhstan Railways, said. The line will use the most advanced Chinese technology and new-generation locomotives and cars.