Banks report forex settlement surplus

China's commercial banks saw a forex settlement surplus of about $18.3 billion in October, official data showed on Friday. Forex purchases by banks reached $216.4 billion, while sales stood at about $198.2 billion, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed. China's forex market has been maintaining stable operation, with market expectations and transactions remaining stable and orderly, and domestic foreign exchange supply and demand generally balanced, a SAFE official said.

SMEs dominate Beijing bourse

More than 80 percent of the listed firms on the Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) are small and medium-sized enterprises, data from the bourse showed on Friday. The BSE has listed 257 firms so far, with private enterprises accounting for nearly 90 percent of the total. The combined market value of listed companies on the bourse exceeds 660 billion yuan ($91.3 billion). China launched the BSE in 2021, with the aim of building it into a primary platform serving innovation-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises.