China

Shougang Corp, the Chinese steel maker, raised Rmb9bn ($1.3bn) on Wednesday in the biggest corporate bond launched this week in China’s robust domestic market

Legend Holdings, the state-linked part owner of Chinese computer maker Lenovo, received a remarkable wave of orders for its Rmb2bn ($293m) bond on Tuesday in a deal that shows the financial crisis has not yet affected China’s domestic currency markets.

The Thai Bankers’ Association has pressed for foreign issuers to be banned from selling bonds denominated in Thai baht, in an effort to conserve liquidity for purely domestic debt sales.

Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corp (Vinashin) this week won approval to sell D3tr ($181m) of corporate bonds in what will be a test of appetite for new issues in the country’s troubled domestic market.

Chinese and Korean borrowers sold a number of local currency bonds this week, proving that the ringgit market was not the only one to escape the financial maelstrom that continues to cause havoc in the global markets.

malaysia’s largest banks, CIMB and Maybank, have each raised about M$1bn ($292m) of capital in the ringgit market, a clear sign that some Asian borrowers are turning to their home markets for funding amid the global financial turmoil.

Asia’s local currency markets, insulated from the US financial crisis but beset by their own problems, played host to a number of small ticket issues this week, chugging along in quiet defiance of the snowstorm burying issuers elsewhere in the region.