xizhimen
Experienced member
- Messages
- 7,391
- Reactions
- Nation of residence
-
- Nation of origin
-
China's yuan jumps to 4-month high as property concerns ebb
By Reuters StaffOCTOBER 19, 20211:32 PM
SHANGHAI, Oct 19 (Reuters) - China's yuan leapt to afour-month high against the dollar on Tuesday, aided by market expectations that the stresses in the domestic property sector as well as Sino-U.S. tensions are easing.
The rise in the yuan in onshore and offshore markets followed weaker-than-expected Chinese economic growth data on Monday, but after China's central bank calmed markets late last week saying spillover effects from the China Evergrande Group's debt woes were controllable.
A couple of other property firms made coupon payments this week, helping ease some concerns about the embattled and indebted sector.
Qi Gao, Asia FX strategist at Scotiabank, said investors had drawn confidence from that reassurance from officials at the People's Bank of China. He said the authorities will manage to prevent Evergrande from being a threat to the financial system.
The stronger yuan had driven a broader rally inrisk-sensitive currencies in the broader currency market, he said.
Currency traders said the yuan was supported by heavy corporate clients' conversion of their dollars as they took advantage of broad dollar weakness, after the latter was knocked back by weak U.S. factory data overnight. "I don't see yuan depreciation expectations for the timebeing," said Tommy Xie, head of Greater China research at OCBC Bank. "After all, the fundamentals are still very strong, seen in the high trade surplus and capital inflows. And companies have a pile of dollars waiting to be settled."
Prior to market opening, the PBOC set the midpoint rate at 6.4307 per dollar, 7 pips weaker than the previous fix of 6.43.
In the spot market, onshore yuan opened at 6.4250 per dollar and jumped to a high of 6.4105, the strongest level since June 16 and 189 pips firmer than the previous late session
close.
The broad dollar index fell to 93.705 from the previous close of 93.936, while the offshore yuan was trading around 6.4035 per dollar, a June high.
"The recent yuan strength was surprising to some market participants, including us, given the increasing headwinds for China growth," said Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at
Mizuho Bank in Hong Kong.
But he said the soft gross domestic product data released on Monday had been expected and priced in and annual growth around 8% remains achievable. "Together with the Phase 1 (trade) deal review with the U.S., the PBOC may intend to keep the yuan broadly steady in the near term. After all, the dollar retracement and the broad Asian currency rally are supportive to the yuan."
Some market analysts attributed the gains in the yuan to fading expectations of a reduction to banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR), despite the weak third-quarter growth as the
world's second-largest economy suffered power shortages, supply bottlenecks and sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks.
And they said the authorities could become uncomfortable with the yuan's fast appreciation, as the spot price was approaching the psychologically important 6.4 per dollar level.
"There was no barrier from the state banks on Tuesday morning," said a trader at a Chinese bank. "But everyone started getting nervous about big banks possibly stepping in soon to
trim the gains."
China's yuan jumps to 4-month high as property concerns ebb
China's yuan leapt to a four-month high against the dollar on Tuesday, aided by market expectations that the stresses in the domestic property sector as well as Sino-U.S. tensions are easing. The rise in the yuan in onshore and offshore markets followed weaker-than-expected Chinese economic...
