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The start to 2016’s equity business has not been easy, with markets doing little to help convince issuers to pull the trigger. But European stockmarkets have settled down, and are managing sometimes to trade well even on days when China’s market falls.

Dalian Port Co has raised HK$4.33bn ($558.55m) from the first tranche of its private placement of H-shares, with a single investor taking up all the stock on offer, according to a company filing.

China Water Affairs has allocated its latest loan of $200m, doubling the deal size after a score of lenders formed the syndicate.

South Korea’s Woori Bank sealed a 144A return to the international bond market on January 12. The issuer’s aggressive pricing strategy kept US investors at bay, but it was unavoidable as the borrower wanted cheap funding, said bankers on the deal.

United Asia Finance (UAF) has started approaching banks for a new syndicated loan, as the Sun Hung Kai owned borrower returns to the market after nearly a year.

The Asia ex-Japan debt capital market was crowded with dollar issuers on January 13, with two investment grade bonds and two high yield notes opening in the morning.

There was shock this week in the offshore market when CNH Hong Kong interbank offered rate (CNH Hibor) reached a record high overnight of 66.8% on January 12. The dramatic move was a result of the People’s Bank of China interventions to stop people shorting the currency, FX traders told GlobalRMB.

Volkswagen kicked off the Chinese auto ABS market this week, raising Rmb2.99bn ($460m) from the sector’s tightest priced transaction yet.

ISDA’s EMEA Determinations Committee has referred Novo Banco credit default swaps to an external review, after failing to achieve a “supermajority” with its binding vote on whether the Portuguese bank has triggered a government intervention credit event.

ISDA has released a list of participating bidders for the credit event auction on Thursday to settle Abengoa 2014 credit default swaps.

La Financière Atalian, the French facilities management company, priced on Tuesday the first European high yield issue of the year. The €125m tap was increased to €150m.

The deadline for public comments on a key US swaps regulation is due next week and, unless the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is swayed otherwise, “made up numbers” could drive costs higher for market participants.