MNI China Daily Summary: Friday, November 22

POLICY: The People's Bank of China will continue to maintain the yuan exchange rate's flexibility while preventing any risk of excessive currency moves, said Liu Ye, an official within the international department, during a briefing Friday.

LIQUIDITY: The PBOC conducted CNY635.1 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.50%. The operation led to a net drain of CNY345.9 billion after offsetting the maturity of CNY981 billion today, according to Wind Information.

RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) fell to 1.6451% from 1.6986% on Thursday, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average increased to 1.4635% from 1.4613%.

BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.9950%, down from Thursday's close of 2.0000%, according to chinamoney.com.cn.

STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index edged down 3.06% to 3,267.19, while the CSI300 index was down 3.10% to 3,865.70. The Hang Seng Index was down 1.89% to 19,229.97.

FROM THE PRESS: The year-on-year decline in new home sales nationwide is expected to soften as November sales stabalise and increased developer promotions would support December's results, Securities Times reported citing analysts. New home sales in 30 key cities rose by about 50% in the first half of November when compared with the same period in October, or a 20% y/y rise, data by China Index Academy showed. The sustained sales rebound will require additional policies including the implementation of urban village innovations which would drive about 100 million square meters of home sales, the newspaper said.

Nine provinces or cities have released plans to issue special refinancing bonds to swap out outstanding implicit debts totaling about CNY500 billion, Securities Daily reported. The Ministry of Finance said this week that it is strengthening guidance to localities to make good use of the additional CNY6 trillion local debt limits granted for hidden debt swaps. The period of special refinancing bonds has been significantly lengthened, and mainly concentrated in economically developed regions, the newspaper said citing analysts.

China is stepping up efforts to issue compliance guidelines for cross-border data flows in the financial industry, China Securities Journal reported citing Li Wei, director of the People's Bank of China's technology department. Data that does not contain important financial or personal information can flow freely across borders and be provided overseas independently, should legal provisions be fulfilled and relevant regulations of the national cyberspace administration and financial management departments be met, according to the guidelines