Asia Pacific

The potential inclusion of Chinese A-shares into global market indices is back on the agenda. Market liberalisations in China since the last review may now have made the move a forgone conclusion.

Taiwan’s GreTai Securities Market (GreTai) is aiming in May to launch benchmark yield curves for the Formosa bonds listed on its platform, with 10 firms picked as market makers to quote bid/offer prices, two sources close to the matter told GlobalRMB.

Mainland purchases of Hong Kong H shares exhausted the southbound daily quota of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect for the second straight day on April 9. The new enthusiasm among Chinese buyers will be a boon for many, but it is also a sharp reminder of the potential and risks associated with China’s opening.

In this round-up, RMB deposits in South Korea fall again, Australia renews its swap line with China, and the Bank of China cross-border RMB index for February rises despite the Spring Festival holiday.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has unleashed a raft of measures to stimulate borrowing in the mainland, but the benefits are yet to trickle down to smaller credits. This gap offers an opportunity to foreign lenders, and they are increasingly being seen in renminbi syndications onshore, writes Shruti Chaturvedi.

Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) — the Hungarian central bank — is planning to buy RMB-denominated bonds for its official holdings.

In this pre-Easter round-up: RMB deposits and cross-border RMB trade settlement both take a hit in February, the Shanghai International Energy Exchange is set to allow foreign participants to trade RMB futures, and Bank of China is looking at Austria for new branches and RMB business in Europe.

Crédit Agricole CIB (CACIB) has launched a new dim sum bond index tracking SSAs, FIs and corporates, with cross-currency swaps (CCS) and the offshore RMB (CNH) outlook emerging as key factors influencing issuance.

Efforts by China’s top regulators to promote the inclusion of the renminbi into the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket may have paid off. Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch think the move is likely to happen and estimate the RMB's potential weighting to be 13%.

The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect notched up record trading in its southbound channel on March 30, as H-shares continue to change hands at deep discounts to their mainland counterparts.

ANZ has set itself the goal of servicing its transaction banking clients as easily in renminbi as in any other currency. And central to that effort are three new appointments it has just put in place in its transaction banking and trading units in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Just as China’s domestic markets have finally started to open up through the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect scheme, heavily discounted H-share IPOs threaten to put a damper on the attractiveness of A-shares to international investors, writes Philippe Espinasse.