MNI China Daily Summary: Tuesday, January 7
LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY7.1 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.50%. The operation led to a net drain of CNY150.6 billion after offsetting the maturity of CNY157.7 billion today, according to Wind Information.
RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) decreased to 1.5593% from 1.6127%, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average rose to 1.4831% from 1.4479%.
YUAN: The currency strengthened to 7.3275 against the dollar from the previous 7.3296. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate higher at 7.1879 on Tuesday, compared with 7.1876 set on Monday. The fixing was estimated at 7.3197 by Bloomberg survey today.
BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.6000%, up from the close of 1.5817% previously, according to chinamoney.com.cn.
STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.71% to 3,229.64, while the CSI300 index lost 0.72% to 3,796.11. The Hang Seng Index lost 1.22% at 19,447.58.
FROM THE PRESS: China’s inflation will likely remain weak in December, as CPI is expected to rise by 0.1-0.2% y/y, compared with November’s 0.2%, the Securities Daily reported citing analysts. PPI may slightly narrow from November’s 2.5% fall, with analysts expecting a decline of 2.2-2.5%, as coking coal prices continued to fall on steelmaking slowdown, a relatively warm winter and a high inventory level while that of iron ore, copper and aluminum all fell on weaken demand, the newspaper said citing analysts. The National Bureau of Statistics is set to release the latest data on Thursday.
China’s new yuan loans are expected to reach CNY900 billion in December, compared to November’s CNY580 billion, as banks quicken loan disbursement to whitelisted real estate projects at year-end and residents’ medium- to long-term loans may rise on recent housing market recovery, the Securities Daily reported citing Wang Qing, analysts with Golden Credit Rating. Aggregate finance may come in at CNY2.3 trillion, basically the same as November’s CNY2.34 trillion, supported by high level of government bond financing, Wang added. The central bank is set to release the latest data during the January 10-15 period.
Local governments are expected to increase and accelerate the issuance of special bonds early this year to boost domestic demand, the Economic Information Daily reported. As of January 6, local governments have planned to issue a total CNY680 billion local government bonds in Q1, of which special bonds account for CNY240 billion, the newspaper said. Funding demand remains high as a large number of major infrastructure projects will be started this year and local authorities need to supplement their financial resources for swapping out off-balance-sheet debts and buying up unsold homes for affordable housing, the daily said citing analysts.