MNI China Daily Summary: Monday, March 9

     DATA: China recorded its first trade deficit in two years as exports

plunged more severely than imports during the coronavirus outbreak, official

data of the first two months released on Saturday showed. Trade deficit in

Jan-Feb was $7.09 billion. Exports fell 17.2% y/y to $292.45 billion, while

imports dropped 4.0% to $299.54 billion.

     LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) skipped open market operations

for the 15th day, leaving liquidity unchanged, according to Wind Information.

Liquidity in the banking system is reasonable and ample, PBOC said on its

website.

     RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository

institutions (DR007) rose to 1.9409% from Friday's close of 1.8928%, Wind

Information showed. The overnight repo average increased to 1.5927% from the

previous 1.3634%.

     YUAN: The currency strengthened to 6.9250 against the dollar from 6.9400 on

Friday. PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower for a sixth trading

day at 6.9260 compared with Friday's 6.9337, the strongest level since Feb. 3.

     BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bond was last at 2.5600%, down

from the close of 2.6625% on Friday, according to Wind Information. 

     STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 3.01% to 2,943.29 amid fears

over the impact of the global coronavirus epidemic and a crash in oil prices.

Hang Seng Index plunged 4.23% to 25,040.46.

     FROM THE PRESS: No new local cases of the COVID-19 virus have been reported

outside of the epicentre of Wuhan City for the first time since the epidemic

appeared, the Economic Daily reported citing a news briefing on Sunday. Three

new cases confirmed outside of Hubei province were cases imported from overseas.

The development of the epidemic outside of China and imported cases continue to

add risks and pressures to China's ability to control the epidemic, the

newspaper said citing Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission.

     A total of 78 million migrant workers were back at work in China as of last

Friday and all migrant workers will have moved back to the cities where they

work by the first half of April, the Economic Information Daily reported citing

Zhang Ying, an official at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The central government had helped companies employ 298,000 people since

February, the daily said.

     Chinese provinces with large automotive industries and good local fiscal

conditions such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shanghai are likely to roll out

measures to boost new car purchases, the China Securities Journal reported

citing analysts. Potential measures included relaxations on car license limits

and subsidies for buying electric vehicles or cars which meet the latest

emission standards, the newspaper said.

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 (10) 8532-5998; email: wanxia.lin@marketnews.com

--MNI Beijing Bureau; +86 10 8532 5998; email: william.bi@mni-news.com

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