Business briefs for Friday August 5

A trillion yuan for the power grid this year: State Grid 国家电网, China’s power utility, has announced that it completed investment of 236.4 billion yuan ($34.99 billion) in the national power grid in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 19%, and it currently has projects under construction totalling 883.2 billion yuan ($130.73 billion).

First oral COVID drug IPO: Yesterday, Genuine Biotech 真实生物科技, whose drug Azvudine was approved for use in China on July 25, submitted an application for an IPO at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Hot sales for air conditioners and ice-making machines: According to data from JD.com, sales of air conditioners have increased by more than 400% month-on-month, and more than 20,000 ice-making machines were sold on Alibaba shopping platform Taobao in July.