China Steps In to Support Stock Prices
Chinese state-owned firms are swinging into action to support stock prices after sharp falls on Monday. Moves Tuesday include:
—Central Huijin, a unit of state-owned sovereign wealth fund China Investment, said it was buying more index exchange-traded funds as a show of confidence. Other funds made similar moves. The Chinese central bank said it would support Central Huijin as needed.
—One of the biggest state-owned oil companies, known as Sinopec, said it would buy back the equivalent of $273 million to $409 million of its own shares, and other state-owned companies announced share buybacks.
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Exclusive-China-backed militia secures control of new rare earth mines in Myanmar
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Beijing's access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar's north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country's junta, which Beijing supports. Now, in the hillsides of Shan state in eastern Myanmar, Chinese miners are opening new deposits for extraction, according to two of the sources, both of whom work at one of the mines. At least 100 people are working day-to-night shifts excavating hillsides and extracting minerals using chemicals, the sources said. Two other residents of the area said they had witnessed trucks carrying material from the mines, between the towns of Mong Hsat and Mong Yun, toward the Chinese border some 200km away. Reuters identified some of the sites using imagery from commercial satellite providers Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies. 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