China stocks firm as Beijing pledges reforms, liquidity
18/06/2020 05:48
* SSEC 0.0%, CSI300 0.5%, HSI -0.2%
* HK->Shanghai Connect daily quota used 4.6%, Shanghai->HK
daily
quota used 2.8%
* FTSE China A50 +0.5%
SHANGHAI, June 18 (Reuters) - China stocks firmed on
Thursday as policymakers assured investors that the economy is
gradually recovering from the coronavirus crisis, while pledging
more reforms and liquidity to bolster capital markets.
** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index .SSEC
was up 0.03% at 2,936.88 points, while China's blue-chip CSI300
index .CSI300 rose 0.46%.
** The smaller Shenzhen index .SZSC was unchanged for the
day and the start-up board ChiNext Composite index .CNT was
weaker by 0.41%.
** China's economic fundamentals remain sound and its
financial markets are stable overall, the central bank governor
said on Thursday, adding that the bank would keep liquidity
levels reasonably ample in the second half of the year.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DV13T
** New loans are likely to hit nearly 20 trillion yuan
($2.83 trillion) this year, up from a record 16.81 trillion yuan
in 2019, and total social financing could increase by more than
30 trillion yuan, the governor said.
** Earlier in the day, the People's Bank of China made its
first 14-day reverse repo injection since February, and cut the
rate 20bps.
** China's top securities regulator said on Thursday that
the country would continue to "comprehensively deepen" capital
market reform, and that the top priority is to help market
confidence recover amid the pandemic. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nB9N2AL04G
** The remark came after Beijing finalized over the weekend
new IPO rules for Shenzhen's ChiNext startup board, as it pushed
forward with reforms in its capital markets. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DP1RM
** Concerns over a sudden jump in virus cases in Beijing
eased somewhat as investors expected Beijing's containment
measures would soon bring it under control.
** The Chinese government has taken swift measures to handle
the new cases in Beijing, said Zhou Longgang, an analyst with
Huachuang Securities.
** China reported 28 fresh COVID-19 cases in the mainland as
of end-June 17, 21 of which were in the capital of Beijing, the
country's health commission said on Thursday. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nB9N2A7024
** Bucking the broad strength, Chinese banking shares
slipped after government said it will push for them to surrender
profits to help bolster the economy. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DV0PS
** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong .HSCE dipped 0.03%
to 9,906.82, while the Hang Seng Index .HSI was down 0.22% at
24,427.54.
** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index
.MIAPJ0000PUS was weaker by 0.19%, while Japan's Nikkei index
.N225 dropped 0.38%.
** The yuan CNY=CFXS was quoted at 7.0737 per U.S. dollar,
0.14% firmer than the previous close of 7.0835.
(Reporting by Luoyan Liu and Andrew Galbraith, Editing by
Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
((luoyan.liu@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
luoyan.liu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))