MNI China Daily Summary: Thursday, January 23

     BEIJING (MNI) - EXCLUSIVE: Growth in China's infrastructure investment may

see a moderate rebound in 2020, fueled by increased issuance of special-purpose

bonds, but a lack of good projects and top-up funds to keep them going remain

constraints, government advisors told MNI. Prompted by national authorities to

bring forward issuance in order to boost the economy, local governments had sold

as much as CNY681 billion of special bonds from the start of the year until Jan.

22, already a new record for monthly sales of the debt, data from Wind

Information showed. The bonds are repaid by returns on projects funded and do

not appear in headline central government accounts.

     POLICY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC)'s latest round of required

reserve ratio cuts earlier this month will take time to impact the benchmark

Loan Prime Rate, said Ma Jun, a member of the central bank's monetary policy

committee, in an interview with Financial News. Ma's comments come after the

PBOC-authorized National Interbank Funding Centre on Jan. 20 left 1-year and

5-year LPR quotes unchanged from last month at 4.15% and 4.80%, raising concerns

that they failed to reflect the lower RRR and banks' funding costs, the paper

said.

     LIQUIDITY: The PBOC injected CNY240.5 billion via one-year targeted

medium-term lending facility (TMLF). The central bank skipped conducting reverse

repos, according to a statement on PBOC website. The TMLF injection was CNY17

billion less than the amount of TMLF which matured today, PBOC said. The TMLF

rate was kept unchanged at 3.15%.

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

institutions (DR007) fell to 2.5378% from Wednesday's close of 2.6154%, data by

Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average rose to 2.3714% from

Wednesday's 1.4808%.

     YUAN: The currency weakened to 6.9300 against the dollar from Wednesday's

6.9297 close. PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate higher for a second

day at 6.8876, compared with 6.8853 on Wednesday.

     BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 3.0050%,

down from Wednesday's close of 3.0475%, according to Wind Information.

     STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 2.75% to 2,976.53 amid fears

of the spread of the Coronavirus in China. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost

1.52% to 27,909.12.

     FROM THE PRESS: Authorities in China's city of Wuhan, the centre of the

Coronavirus outbreak, suspended departing trains and flights from the city and

grounded public transportation services including bus, subway and ferry, Xinhua

News Agency reported citing the outbreak control command centre. Citizens are

urged to stay in Wuhan, Xinhua 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

[TOPICS: M$A$$$,M$Q$$$,MBQ$$$]