China's business press carried the following stories on Thursday. China.org.cn has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Yum! increases stake in Little Sheep -- National Business Daily

China's Little Sheep announced last night that it sold 75 million shares to Yum! Brands at a price of HK$4 per share, totaling HK$300 million in total. The stake sold represents 7.3% of Little Sheep's existing shares. After the transaction, Yum! Brands' stake holding in the company will increase from 20 percent to 27.3 percent.

Trading in shares of Little Sheep was suspended yesterday, pending the release of the announcement. In March this year, Yum! Brands acquired 20 percent of Little Sheep in a bid to boost revenue.

China invests US$9.7 bln in Australian mines in 2009 -- China Business News

China invested US$5.82 billion in overseas mines in 2008, up 43 percent year-on-year, said Zhou Zhongshu, President of China Minmetals Corporation, Wednesday.

According to Zhou, the total volume of international merger and acquisition deals in the mining industry exceeded US$200 billion last year. The mining industry has apparently become the hottest investment sector in the world.

This year, the completed and on-going investment of Chinese enterprises in Australian mines has reached US$9.7 billion, Zhou noted. "This clearly shows that emerging economies represented by China have transformed from capital import countries into capital export countries in the mining industry," he added.

Ministry of Finance ranks SOEs on business performances – Economic Observer

The Ministry of Finance Thursday released the evaluation results on the performance of 31 state-owned enterprises in the financial industry. Bank of Communications and China Life Insurance Company rank first on the lists of banking and insurance industries, respectively.

Market insiders noted that the evaluation results may be able to build a connection between SOEs’ performances and salaries of company executives.

The MOF divided all 31 companies into four categories of banking, insurance, securities and financial holdings. CITIC Securities won first place in the securities category, and China Government Securities Depository Trust & Clearing Co. Ltd. is No.1 in the financial holdings category.

Domestic oil prices may hike by the end of the month – The Beijing News

Oil prices may be raised again by at least 0.2 yuan per liter by the end of October, sources with PetroChina told The Beijing News.

International crude prices jumped about 3 percent and remained above US$81 a barrel on Wednesday. With international oil prices hiking, wholesale prices in the domestic oil market also saw a gradual rise.