China Market falls 0.4%

Mainland China share market finished session lower on Tuesday, 12 March 2024, as risk sentiments dampened after China's National Party Congress (NPC) ended its annual session yesterday, and there were no major surprises in economic policy.

At close of trade, the benchmark Shanghai Composite index declined 0.41%, or 12.52 points, to 3,055.94. The Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China's second exchange, added 0.82%, or 14.39 points, to 1,770.57. The blue-chip CSI300 index fell 0.23%, or 8.28 points, to 3,597.49.

ECONOMIC NEWS: China Inflation Turns Positive for First Time In 6 Months- China's inflation turned positive in February for the first time in six months but the upturn was driven by the timing of the Lunar New Year Holiday, diminishing hopes that the deflationary pressures are over. Consumer prices posted an annual increase of 0.7% in February after a 0.8% decrease in January, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed over the weekend. Inflation turned positive for the first time since last August. Beijing aims to bring inflation to 3% in 2024. The main factor that helped overall prices to rise in February was the slowdown in food price deflation. Food prices dropped only 0.9% after a 5.9% decrease. Core inflation ticked up to 1.2% from 0.4% in the previous month. Official data also showed that the producer price deflation deepened to 2.7% from 2.5% in January.

CURRENCY NEWS: China's yuan rose to a 1-1/2-month high against a greenback on Tuesday, as stronger daily central bank guidance and US rate cut expectation. Prior to the market's opening, the People's Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 7.0963 per dollar, 6 pips firmer than the previous fix of 7.0969. In the spot market, the onshore yuan CNY=CFXS yuan was changing hands at 7.1768, 41 pips firmer than the previous late session close.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News