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The finance arms of China's major industrial companies could invest at least 6 billion yuan (US$744 million) in China's stocks, domestic media said yesterday, as part of a drive to divert more funds into the domestic markets.

The units, whose parent companies had published their unaudited results by Monday, possessed a total capital base of 171.5 billion yuan at the end of 2005, including 32.4 billion in cash, the Shanghai Securities News said.

The government issued new rules in September 2004, allowing the financial units of major companies to invest in stocks for the first time, but it set restrictions on their investments.

"These 25 companies alone will have the potential to invest 6 billion yuan into the stock market," the newspaper said, citing data published by the companies on the China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS).

The companies include Aerospace Science & Technology Finance Co. Ltd. and Siemens Finance and Leasing Ltd., a Chinese unit of German giant Siemens AG.

The parent companies of top steelmaker Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. and Sinopec Corp., Asia's largest refiner, have yet to publish their annual reports.

The government is intensifying efforts to lure domestic and foreign cash into a stock market that is bumping along at a four-year low.

As part of the reforms, the government has also allowed brokerages to issue bonds and insurers to invest more of their assets in stocks.