China Market falls on Sino-US trade tension

The Mainland China share market finished session lower on Friday, 17 December 2021, on renewed Sino-US trade tension after the US sanctioned more Chinese tech companies and added others to a blacklist for alleged human rights abuses in the far-west Xinjiang region.

At close of trade, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.16%, or 42.65 points, to 3,632.36. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, dropped 1.41%, or 36.16 points, to 2,523.15. The blue-chip CSI300 index declined 1.59%, or 79.97 points, to 4,954.76.

The US Treasury Department sanctioned eight companies, including drone maker DJI Technology and artificial intelligence giant Megvii. The Commerce Department separately added 34 firms to its so-called entity list.

 

CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan was down against the U.S. dollar on Friday after softer mid-point fixing by the central bank and took steps to rein in appreciation expectations. The central bank had announced a hike in the foreign exchange reserve requirement ratio, which took effect this week. And on Wednesday, regulators granted fresh quotas worth $3.5 billion under a key outbound investment scheme. In addition, the PBOC in November recorded its biggest net purchase of foreign exchange in more than six years, a move that could help stem yuan's rise.

Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate CNY=PBOC at 6.3651 per dollar, 0.02%, softer than the previous fix of 6.3637. In the spot market, the onshore yuan CNY=CFXS was changing hands at 6.3699 per dollar at midday, 9 pips weaker from the previous late session close.

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