BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's key local business news from the past week.

-- Geely

German automaker Daimler AG and China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group announced the formation of a joint venture to operate and develop small-car brand Smart globally as a leader in premium-electric vehicles.

Headquartered in China, the joint venture is expected to be finalised by the end of 2019. The two companies will each hold a 50 percent stake.

-- Huawei

Chinese tech firm Huawei reported robust revenue and profit growth in 2018 "despite a challenging environment".

The company raked in 721.2 billion yuan (107 billion U.S. dollars) in global sales revenue, up 19.5 percent year on year, while its net profit increased 25.1 percent to reach 59.3 billion yuan.

-- Kweichow Moutai

China's leading liquor maker Kweichow Moutai saw net profit up 30 percent year-on-year to 35.2 billion yuan (5.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018.

Over the same period, its revenue grew 26.5 percent year-on-year to 73.6 billion yuan.

-- Vanke

China Vanke Co. Ltd., the country's leading property developer, saw 2018 net profit grow by 20.4 percent year-on-year to 33.8 billion yuan despite a slowdown in the real estate market.

Meanwhile, its revenue rose 22.6 percent year-on-year to 297.7 billion yuan.

-- BYD

BYD, China's largest manufacturer of new energy vehicles (NEVs), is expected to see net profit surge by 538.4 to 778.7 percent year-on-year to 700 million to 900 million yuan in Q1 this year.

Last year, BYD saw net profit down 31.6 percent to 2.78 billion yuan and revenue up 22.8 percent to 130.1 billion yuan. It sold 247,811 NEVs in 2018, an annual increase of over 90 percent.

-- BGI

China's top gene-sequencing provider BGI has developed two screening technologies for early cancer detection.

One technology can detect the gene mutation and methylation level of circulating tumor DNA in blood plasma, thus evaluating the risk of various cancers including lung, liver, ovarian, pancreatic and colorectal cancers.

The other technology specifically focuses on the early screening of colorectal cancer, one of the most common cancers in China.