MNI CHINA MARKETS: Yuan Weaker; Rates Lower; SH Shares Down

     BEIJING (MNI) - The Chinese yuan dropped to 6.2835 against the U.S. dollar

on Friday from yesterday's 6.2778 closing, following today's weaker fixing.  

     The People's Bank of China set the yuan central parity rate at 6.2897

Friday, weaker than Thursday's 6.2832, marking the third consecutive trading day

that the central bank has set a weaker fixing. PBOC has set the fixing weaker

for three trading days out of five this week.

     Interbank market rates decreased after PBOC chose not to conduct

open-market operations, which resulted in no change in liquidity conditions.

  - 7-day repo average last at 2.8386%, lower than 2.9890% yesterday 

  - Overnight repo average dropped to 2.7592% from 2.8226% yesterday. 

     The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds last traded 3.5200%, up from

3.5100% close yesterday: Wind Information.

The Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.89% to 3089.73 at 11:04 am, while Hang

Seng Index was last down 0.36% at 30,597.82.

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

--MNI Singapore Bureau; +65 8233 2326; email: Asia-Editor@marketnews.com

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