China lets yuan fall faster, share trading suspended as prices tumble
33 minutes ago
People sit in front of an
electronic boarding that was turned off after trading was suspended, at a
brokerage house, in Beijing, China, January 7, 2016. REUTERS/Jason Lee
China's stock markets were suspended for the day less than half an hour after the open as a new circuit-breaking mechanism was tripped for the second time this week.
The People's Bank of China again surprised markets by setting the official midpoint rate on the yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), 0.5 percent weaker at 6.5646 per dollar, the lowest since March 2011.
That tracked record losses in the more open offshore market in the currency and was the biggest daily fall since last August, when an abrupt near 2 percent devaluation of the currency also roiled markets.
Dealers, however, said the PBOC had intervened later to reverse a more than 1 percent fall in offshore rates for the yuan after they hit a record low of 6.7600 per dollar.
After opening in London, the offshore yuan had taken back all its losses to stand higher on the day at 6.6905.
"It's very similar to the previous round (in August) where they weaken the official rate and then intervene against the dollar offshore to beat back the speculators," said a yuan trader with one international bank in London.
"That would be a way of starting to stabilize the market."
The PBOC's China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) repeated on Thursday that there was no basis for the yuan's continuous depreciation and that it was stable against a basket of currencies in 2015.
But the central bank's fixings have helped drive the yuan down not just against the dollar this week, but also other major currencies, including a 3.5 percent fall against the yen and 0.8 percent against the euro.
That raised concerns that China might be aiming for a competitive devaluation to help its struggling exporters.
"That's the fear of the market," said Sim Moh Siong, FX strategist for Bank of Singapore, adding that it was a zero sum game as other currencies weakened in response, and the end result would be greater volatility.
Others in the market were unsure what policy Beijing was pursuing.
"Frankly speaking, we are still not quite sure where the PBOC boundary is at the current stage," said Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).
"The fear of the unknown has become the largest risk for RMB in the near term, despite China’s sizable current account surplus."
The Australian dollar, often used by foreign exchange dealers as a liquid proxy for the yuan, fell more than half a U.S. cent. The Korean won, however, recovered almost all of its initial falls with banks saying the Bank of Korea had probably also intervened to support the currency.
OCBC noted that against a basket of currencies, the RMB index was still only fractionally down for 2016, despite this week's fixes against the dollar.
ANZ bank said in a note that the PBOC's action would nevertheless "create one-way expectation of RMB depreciation, propelling capital flight and leading to significant financial instability".
DECLINING RESERVES
Data on Thursday showed China's foreign exchange reserves fell by the most on record last month, down $108 billion in December alone and by $513 billion overall last year.
That suggests an accelerating outflow of money from China which may largely be the result of the opening up of its financial markets over the past year, but also a sign that the world's second-largest economy is in deepening trouble.
Michael Every, Rabobank's Head of Markets Research, Asia-Pacific, said once Beijing had won the diplomatic triumph of getting the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund's reserve currency basket in November, he expected policymakers would let it slip to cope with a slowing, deflationary economy.
"Why people are panicked is because (i) they didn't see this coming, and/or (ii) the global economy needs a consumer of last resort, and China is sending a signal that they won't be it," he added.
A sustained depreciation in the yuan puts pressure on other Asian countries to weaken their currencies to stay competitive with China's massive export machine.
It also makes commodities denominated in U.S. dollars more expensive for Chinese buyers, which could hurt demand and thus further depress commodity prices in a vicious chain reaction.
Equities markets were also notable and immediate casualties, especially domestic Chinese shares.
Shanghai
stocks slid 7.3 percent to trigger the halt in trading, a repeat
performance of Monday's sudden tumble. Japan's Nikkei shed 2.3 percent
in sympathy, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 2.8 percent.
The
halt mechanism, intended to calm market volatility, was having the
opposite effect, according to a 22-year-old retail investor in Guangzhou
surnamed Hu.
He
said he bought shares on Wednesday when the market rebounded, but was
now trapped by the circuit breaker, which he said was "killing
investors" and creating panic.
China's securities
regulator also unveiled new rules on Thursday to restrict selling by big
shareholders who have been locked into their holdings for six months
since Beijing banned them from offloading stocks to arrest a summer
market crash.
In rules that take effect on Jan. 9, they can't sell more than 1 percent of a listed company's share capital every three months.
The new rules didn't go down well with investors.
"This
is crazy. Chinese regulators set off on this path in July and they
cannot get out of it. They have ruined whatever hope investors still had
in the market," said Alberto Forchielli, founder of Mandarin Capital
Partners.
(Reporting by Lu Jianxin and Samuel Shen in Shanghai and Patrick Graham
in London; Additional reporting by Lisa Jucca and Masayuki Kitano;
Writing by Wayne Cole and Will Waterman; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-stocks-trading-halted-rout-023219822.html
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