MNI China Daily Summary: Wednesday, February 8

LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY641 billion of operations via 7-day reverse repos with rates unchanged at 2.00% on Wednesday. The operation led to a net injection of CNY486 billion after offsetting the maturity of CNY155 billion reverse repos today, according to Wind Information. The operation aims to keep banking system liquidity reasonable and ample, the PBOC said on its website.

RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) increased to 2.2446% from the close of 2.1394% on Tuesday, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average increased to 2.3750% from the previous 2.2791%.

YUAN: The currency strengthened to 6.7802 against the dollar from 6.7876 on Tuesday. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower at 6.7752 on Wednesday, compared with 6.7967 set on Tuesday.

BONDS: The yield on the 10-year China Government Bond was last at 2.9100%, lower than Tuesday's close of 2.9150%, according to Wind Information.

STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index edged down 0.49% at 3,232.11, while the CSI300 index decreased 0.44% to 4,076.14, The Hang Seng Index was down 0.07% to 21,283.52.

FROM THE PRESS: Pork prices will continue trending downwards in the near term as inventories remain high and Spring Festival consumption demand has passed, according to the Securities Daily. The price of hogs stood at CNY14.33/kg on February 7, a 19% decline from January 1. According to experts cited by the paper, more focus should be put on upgrading the supply chain by enhancing technology and the ecology of farming, rather than solely focusing on price fluctuations. Over the medium-term, a recovery in economic fundamentals is expected to see pork demand gradually pick up and prices stabilise.

The rate of decline in total non-bank financing for real estate companies slowed down in January, pointing to an improvement in financing conditions for the property sector following policy stimulus in Q4 2022, according to Shanghai Securities News. Some developers with stronger credit, such as Yuexiu and Jinmao, have resumed issuing overseas bonds, which lays the foundation for the industry to resume issuing overseas bonds in the future. Although financing conditions have improved, debt repayment pressure remains large, with the total amount of maturing bonds increasing by 6% over last year, according to the news outlet.

New yuan loans issued in January are forecast to have increased by CNY1 billion year-on-year, according to a survey of 13 financial institutions by Caixin. Due to continued credit support for infrastructure projects, improved financing conditions for real estate developers, and the recovery of corporate credit demand, new yuan loans in January will be slightly higher than last year's level, according to analysts cited by the news outlet. As demand for property sales remains weak, mortgage interest rates can be guided down, and therefore it is expected that the 5-year LPR will drop, according to the news outlet.