MNI China Daily Summary: Thursday, November 13

POLICY: China’s Agricultural Products Wholesale Price 200 Index reached 125.64, the highest level since February, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs announced. 

LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY190 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.40%. The operation led to a net injection of CNY97.2 billion after offsetting maturities of CNY92.8 billion today, according to Wind Information

RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) fell to 1.4782% from 1.4904% previously, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average was at 1.3199%, down from 1.4192 previously. 

YUAN: The currency strengthened to 7.0959 against the dollar from the previous 7.1172. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate higher at 7.0865, compared with 7.0833 set on Wednesday. The fixing was estimated at 7.1148 by Bloomberg survey today.

BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.7800%, down from the previous close of 1.7754%, according to Wind Information.

STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.73% to 4,029.50, while the CSI300 index increased 1.21% to 4,702.07. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.56% to 27,073.03.

FROM THE PRESS: Industrial output is expected to slow to 5.7% y/y in October from September’s 6.5%, as Oct manufacturing PMI fell again after rising for two consecutive months, according to economists surveyed by Yicai.com. The average forecast for Oct retail sales is 2.7% y/y, lower than the 3% figure released last month, tamed by the higher comparison base for the same period last year when the government introduced consumer goods trade-in policy. Meanwhile, fixed-asset investment for the first 10 months may decline further by 0.8% from the previous 0.5% fall, as the government’s "anti-involution" campaign has led to a temporary halt in capacity expansion in some industries. The National Bureau of Statistics is set to release the latest data on Friday.

China hopes Germany will play a positive role in urging the Dutch government to revoke its seizure of chipmaker Nexperia, Chinese ​Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said on Tuesday during a call with his German counterpart, according to a statement on the Ministry of Commerce website. Wang said China has made its utmost efforts by granting exemptions for eligible exports, which has helped ease supply chain pressure in the short term, but ensuring the long-term stability of the global semiconductor supply chain requires the Netherlands to demonstrate a constructive attitude and take concrete steps. German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Katherina Reiche said Germany is following the Nexperia issue closely and will continue to enhance communication with the Netherlands, according to the release.

The Panda bond market has expanded rapidly with the cumulative issuance exceeding CNY1 trillion by the end of July, marking a significant milestone in the opening up of China's bond market, Securities Daily reported. As of Nov 12, 104 Panda bonds have been issued this year, with a total issuance scale of CNY162.6 billion, the newspaper said. Authorities need to promote the transformation of the Panda bond market from "scale expansion" to "quality improvement" continuously, focusing on innovating products and improving market transparency and efficiency, the newspaper said citing analysts.