MNI China Daily Summary: Thursday, June 5

EXCLUSIVE: China is stepping up efforts to internationalise the yuan despite the many challenges facing the currency, aiming to boost its use in offshore investment and commodity pricing as global confidence in the U.S. dollar stumbles amid mounting American debt and rising protectionist trade policies, advisors and economists told MNI.

LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY126.5 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.40%. The operation led to a net drain of CNY139.5 billion after offsetting the maturities of CNY266 billion today, according to Wind Information.

RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) fell to 1.5506% from 1.5549% previously, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average decreased to 1.4122% from the previous 1.4133%. 

YUAN: The currency strengthened to 7.1838 against the dollar from the previous 7.1890. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower at 7. , compared with 7.1886 set on Wednesday. The fixing was estimated at 7.1783 by Bloomberg survey today.

BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.6720%, up from the previous close of 1.6700%, according to Wind Information.

STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.23% to 3,384.10, while the CSI300 index increased 0.23% to 3,877.56. The Hang Seng Index rose 1.07% to 23,906.97.

FROM THE PRESS: Authorities will increase financing supply for small and private enterprises involved in foreign trade, technology and consumption, Economic Daily reported, citing a National Financial Regulatory Administration statement with seven other departments. Authorities will guide bankers to increase issuing credit and medium- and long-term loans, and target first-time borrowers the newspaper said, noting some high potential tech start-ups with core technologies had poor access to financing.

China should not consider a comprehensive zero tariff trade policy given the nation's economic and security development, an analyst at the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute told Yicai news, emphasising the comments reflected personal views amid public debate on the issue. A comprehensive zero tariff would irreparably impact the country's central tax revenue, the analyst said, noting the former Soviet Union collapse was marked by the low proportion of central fiscal revenue to GDP. While China's significant share of intermediate goods trade provided a strong rationale for pursuing zero-tariff policies, the government can instead expand export processing and free trade zones and special customs supervision areas, the analyst said.

The Ministry of Finance has announced the selection of 20 cities to receive central support for urban renewal actions this year, including Beijing, Tianjin and Guangzhou. Central authorities will provide fixed subsidies of no more than CNY800 million for eastern regions, CNY1 billion for central regions and CNY1.2 billion for western regions. Li Yujia, chief researcher at the Housing Policy Research Center, said the urban renewal actions can address shortages in urban infrastructure and public facilities. Central authorities base financial support on specific projects which helps clear bottlenecks and promotes capital investment.