China

The Chinese government took a further step to improve transparency and liquidity in the domestic bond markets this week, allowing 13 commercial banks to make markets in bonds listed on the country’s stock exchanges.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore bucked the trend of declining Islamic bond issuance this week when it made its debut issue in the format, aiding its efforts to become an Islamic financial centre in Asia.

The Republic of the Philippines is set to launch a debt exchange next week which will allow holders of peso-denominated government bonds to swap them for new five and seven year issues, simplifying the sovereign’s yield curve and directing liquidity to a few key issues.

Steel company Posco raised W500bn ($359m) in Korea’s domestic bond market this week. Posco’s five year bond, paying a coupon of 5.06%, is its first deal in the domestic market since last July, when it also issued a W500bn note.

The fees paid to arranging banks in Asia’s local currency bond markets are set to rise in 2009, bankers predicted this week.

China National Petroleum Corp is to sell a Rmb20bn ($2.93bn) bond today (Friday), topping off a week of heavy issuance in the Chinese bond market.

IDBI Bank, the Indian public sector bank, sold a Rp18.3bn ($365m) bond in the domestic market this week. It is IDBI’s fifth bond this year, and came amid a week of heavy issuance in India’s domestic market where about $867m was raised in total.

Woori Finance Holdings sold its biggest domestic bond this week, raising W800bn ($541m) in a single deal and becoming the latest Korean issuer to increase its domestic funding as opportunities to fund offshore evaporate.