Mixed In Thin Holiday Trade

China's bonds post gains in March, bucking the global trend. Quiet trade today with many markets on holiday.

• SOUTH KOREA: Bonds pressured lower on positive data and increased issuance. The MOF plans to sell KRW 14.5tn of bonds in April, compared to KRW 17.2tn in March against an original plan of KRW 14tn. It was flagged previously that South Korea would minimise issuance of longer-tenure bonds in order to address yield curve inversion in the long end. Data released earlier showed CPI rose 1.5% Y/Y, in line with estimates, while the core reading rose 1% against estimates of 0.9%. The 1.5% print is the fastest increase since January 2020.
• CHINA: The PBOC matched maturities with injections again today, the twentieth straight day of matching maturities, while the bank hasn't injected funds since February 25. Repo rates have declined from elevated levels yesterday, overnight repo rate last at 1.7215% after touching 2.20% yesterday, 7-day repo rate last at 1.99%, down from peaks of 2.60% earlier this week. Futures are higher, in the cash space some fattening seen. China sold CNY 55.7bn of local government bonds in February, with an average tenor of 8.9 years and average yield of 3.45%. Performance data for Q1 showed Chinese government bonds were resilient to the global bond sell off, and boasted lower volatility and correlation with global bonds.
• INDIA: Markets closed
• INDONESIA: Markets closed