MNI China Daily Summary: Tuesday, February 25
DATA: China's crude steel and steel output reached 21.5 and 20.3 million tonnes of steel during the middle 10 days of February, up 0.8% and 4.2% from the previous month, data from the China Iron And Steel Association showed.
LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY318.5 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.50%. The operation led to a net drain of CNY170.7 billion after offsetting the maturity of CNY489.2 billion today, according to Wind Information.
RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) increased to 2.2161% from 2.0550%, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average fell to 1.8686% from 1.8774%.
YUAN: The currency weakened to 7.2641 against the dollar from the previous 7.2484. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate higher at 7.1726, compared with 7.1717 set on Monday. The fixing was estimated at 7.2530 by Bloomberg survey today.
BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.7678%, down from the close of 1.7980% previously, according to chinamoney.com.cn.
STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.80% to 3,346.04, while the CSI300 index was down 1.11% to 3,925.65. The Hang Seng Index lost 1.32% at 23,034.02.
FROM THE PRESS: China’s private firms face challenges such as access to credit, hidden barriers in monopolistic industries and poorer access to government relations, said Liu Junhai, professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China, following the NPC Standing Committee's second review of the draft law on promoting the private economy. The introduction of the law will be a key pillar for building a private sector friendly normative legal system, Liu added. Cong Yi, vice president at the Tianjin Municipal Party School, said non-public enterprises cannot follow the old ways and be content with small gains, and instead need innovation to maintain vitality.
China’s capital market will support the financing of high-quality enterprises in new industries, technologies, and business models, according to an article written by China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing. The CSRC will enrich the supply of green financial products, promote the listing, merger and acquisition of tech firms, as well as improve private placement and venture capital, according to Wu.
China’s SOEs are becoming large customers of devices with a local storage of DeepSeek, a market expected to exceed CNY500 billion in 2027, according to 21st Century Business Herald. Customers want localised storage to integrate DeepSeek with their business processes and protect internal data from being leaked, features suited to state-owned enterprises, military and medical industries.