Yuan drops most in four weeks

    CHINA’S yuan Friday fell the most in four weeks as the Swiss National Bank’s surprise move to abandon a cap to the euro boosted demand for the U.S. dollar.

    The Swiss franc jumped as much as 41 percent Friday in London after the central bank scrapped a three-year-old policy of preventing the currency from strengthening beyond the 1.20 level against the European single currency. The yuan weakened 0.3 percent, the most since Dec. 18, to close at 6.2066 a dollar in Shanghai, China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices showed.

    ICBC to sell asset-backed securities

    INDUSTRIAL and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), the country’s largest listed bank, plans to sell 11.3 billion yuan (US$1.83 billion) in asset-backed securities (ABS), according to a memo.

    ABS are securities created by packaging together a pool of underlying assets, typically small loans that are difficult to sell individually. China is expanding asset securitization on an unprecedented scale as the government looks to increase bank liquidity without expanding the money supply. The memo said the securities will be backed by an underlying asset pool drawn from loans to the railway and transportation sector.

    China Telecom mulls Mexico investment

    CHINA Telecom is studying a possible investment in Mexico, a company spokesman said Saturday, a day after foreign media reported that it is preparing a possible bid for Mexico’s new US$10 billion mobile broadband network.

    The spokesman for subsidiary China Telecom Corp. said that China Telecom was doing a preliminary study on an investment opportunity in Mexico. Reuters, citing sources, reported Friday that China Telecom is looking for Mexican partners to join it in a consortium for the mobile broadband project.

    Sinopec eyes new energy, materials for growth

    SINOPEC Group will invest over the next decade in clean energy, environmental protection and new materials, as it seeks to reduce its dependence on oil production and processing.

    The firm is looking at making technological breakthroughs in these areas over five to 10 years, and will create industrial parks, an investment fund and a research institute to accelerate innovation, according to comments from chairman Fu Chengyu.