MNI CHINA MARKETS: Yuan Stronger; Rates Mixed; Stocks Down

     BEIJING (MNI) - The yuan rose against the U.S. dollar Monday morning even

though the People's Bank of China set a weaker daily fixing. 

     The yuan was last at 6.5990 against the U.S. unit, compared with the

official closing price of 6.6037 on Friday. 

     The PBOC set the yuan central parity rate against the U.S. dollar at 6.5874

on Monday, weaker than Friday's 6.5810. It was the first weaker fixing after

three straight trading days of stronger fixings. 

     Money market rates were mixed Monday morning after the PBOC's CNY140

billion injection in liquidity via open-market operations resulted in no net

injection, as the same amount of reverse repos matured Monday. The seven-day

repo average was last at 2.7203% Monday, lower than Friday's average of 2.9387%.

The overnight repo average was at 2.7910%, higher than Friday's 2.7891%.

     The yield on benchmark 10-year China government bonds was last at 3.9300%,

down from the previous close of 3.9375%, according to Wind, a financial data

provider. 

     Stocks were down, led lower by the air freight and insurance sectors. The

benchmark Shanghai Composite Index was last down 0.69% at 3,330.67. Hong Kong's

Hang Seng Index was 0.37% lower at 29,756.41.

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

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

[TOPICS: M$A$$$,M$Q$$$,M$$FI$,MN$FI$,MN$FX$]