MNI China Daily Summary: Tuesday, September 9

EXCLUSIVE: China will continue pressing for a free trade area within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), despite last week’s leaders’ declaration in Tianjin omitting the initiative, a senior Chinese official told MNI.

LIQUIDITY: The People's Bank of China (PBOC) conducted CNY247 billion via 7-day reverse repos, with the rate unchanged at 1.40%. The operation led to a net drain of CNY8.7 billion after offsetting maturities of CNY255.7 billion today, according to Wind Information.

RATES: The seven-day weighted average interbank repo rate for depository institutions (DR007) increased to 1.4789% from 1.4523%, Wind Information showed. The overnight repo average rose to 1.4163% from 1.3570%.

YUAN: The currency strengthened to 7.1248 against the dollar from the previous 7.1321. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower at 7.1008, compared with 7.1029 set on Monday. The fixing was estimated at 7.1249 by Bloomberg survey today.

BONDS: The yield on 10-year China Government Bonds was last at 1.8625%, up from the previous close of 1.8515%, according to chinamoney.com.cn.

STOCKS: The Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.51% to 3,807.29, while the CSI300 index was down 0.70% at 4,436.26. The Hang Seng Index gained 1.19% at 25,938.13.

FROM THE PRESS: The Yicai Chief Economist Confidence Index rose to 50.6 in September from 50.2 in August, according to Yicai. Cheng Shi, chief economist at ICBC International, noted China's economy exhibited steady improvement, supported by recovering consumption, industrial upgrading and more diversified foreign trade. Economists forecast August retail sales growth of 3.9% y/y, modestly above July’s 3.7%. Wen Bin, chief economist at Minsheng Bank, attributed the anticipated gain to summer holiday travel and the gradual resumption of trade-in programs in some regions, which helped revive auto sales, while weaker retail, housing-related, and petroleum product spending weighed on overall growth.

China’s imports and exports totalled RMB3.87 trillion in August, up 3.5% from a year earlier but 3.2 percentage points slower than July’s pace, Yicai reported. Exports and imports rose by 4.8% and 1.7%, marking the third straight month of gains in both, Yicai noted. Wang Qing, chief macro analyst at Oriental Jincheng, said the export slowdown from July's 8% growth was largely expected, citing last year’s high base and weaker shipments to the U.S. Wang estimated U.S. exports shaved 5.1 percentage points off overall export growth in August, a 1.8 point larger drag than in July.

President Xi Jinping urged BRICS countries to remain committed to building an open global economy, emphasising the need to share opportunities and pursue win-win outcomes through openness. Speaking at a virtual BRICS Summit chaired by Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Xi said economic globalisation is “an irresistible trend of history,” stressing that countries cannot prosper without an open international environment and that “no nation can afford to retreat into self-imposed isolation.”