MNI China Press Digest Apr 29: Rate Cut, A Shares, Consumption

The following lists highlights from Chinese press reports on Friday:

• The People’s Bank of China is still likely to cut the benchmark Loan Prime Rate by 10 basis points in Q2 to stabilise economic growth, the Economic Information Daily reported citing Wang Qing, chief analyst of Golden Credit Rating. The PBOC may continue to boost targeted support for small businesses and the logistics sector, including increasing the quota of re-lending, the newspaper said citing Wang Yifeng, chief analyst at Everbright Securities. The central bank set up CNY200 billion relending for technological innovation on Thursday and is accelerating the release of CNY100 billion relending for transportation and logistics, which are expected to boost banks’ loan issuance by CNY1 trillion, the newspaper said.
• China cut transfer fees for A shares by 50% to 0.01‰ of the transaction amount, the first such cut in nearly seven years to lift investor confidence amid a recent market slump, the Securities Times reported. This will reduce transaction costs for investors by about CNY5 billion per year, based on the CNY256 trillion transaction volume of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in 2021, the newspaper said. Investors were urged to take advantage of the lower fees with the Shanghai Composite Index below 3,000 points, the newspaper said citing Yang Delong, chief economist of First Seafront Fund.
• Several cities in China are issuing consumer coupons before the May Day holiday, aiming to boost spending on tourism, appliances, housing and cars, the China Securities Journal reported. Guangdong province will subsidise electric car buyers at CNY8,000 per vehicle in the next two months, and Jiangmen city will distribute 9,000 sets of consumer voucher packages totalling CNY37 million to home buyers, the newspaper said. Shenzhen city has issued CNY400 million of shopping vouchers, CNY60 million of dining vouchers, CNY10 million of tourism vouchers and CNY30 million in digital yuan, the newspaper said.