Chinese Stocks Stay Supported On Easy Monetary Policy Action

Chinese shares stayed supported as the recent interest rate cuts helped lift the sentiments despite mixed global cues.The benchmark Shanghai Composite index added 0.80% to close at 3569.91. The index had tanked to a near two month low last week amid soaring Covid-19 cases but apt monetary policy action yesterday seemed to have provided the stocks enough impetus. China's economy grew 8.1% for full year 2021 from a year earlier, exceeding the government's target of above 6% and following a revised 2.2% growth in 2020, according to official data from China's National Bureau of Statistics released on Monday. The economy expanded 4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2021, easing from a 4.9% growth in the previous period. It was the slowest pace of expansion since the second quarter last year, amid several headwinds including a property downturn and COVID-19 outbreaks. On seasonally adjusted basis, the economy expanded 1.6% on quarter in the three months to December 2021, following an upwardly revised 0.7% advance in the previous quarter. This was the fastest quarterly growth since the fourth quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, China's central bank, on Monday cut the borrowing costs of its medium-term loans for the first time since April 2020 to cushion any economic slowdown. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was lowering the interest rate on CNY 700 billion of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions by 10 basis points to 2.85% from 2.95% in previous operations. The central bank also lowered the borrowing costs of seven-day reverse repurchase agreements, or repos, by the same margin to 2.10% from 2.20%.

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