Photo taken on Sept. 9, 2020 shows the view of the skyscrapers of the Central Business District (CBD) in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)
BEIJING, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Foreign investors maintained their relatively hefty bond purchase paces on China's interbank bond market in January, with their net purchases at 141.3 billion yuan, up 36.5 percent from December, 2021, reported Xinhua-run Xinhua Finance citing data with China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) on Thursday.
Last month, foreign institutional investors bought 783.2 billion yuan of RMB-denominated bonds in total and sold 641.9 billion yuan of bonds at the same time. Their bond transactions completed under the settlement via agency mode stood at 644.4 billion yuan and related net purchases were 136.1 billion yuan, an increase of 70.8 billion yuan month on month. Through the Bond Connect, 780.7 billion yuan of bond transactions were concluded and related net monthly buying grossed 5.2 billion yuan.
Foreign institutions made 1.43 trillion yuan of cash bond turnover in January, up 53 percent month on month and the data accounted for about seven percent of the total cash bond turnover on China's interbank bond market last month.
By the end of January, there were 508 foreign institutions that traded bonds on China's interbank bond market via the settlement via agency mode and 734 foreign institutions entered the interbank bond market through the Bond Connect.
By investor structure, foreign commercial banks, and securities companies were relatively more active than other types of foreign institutional investors in terms of trading on interbank bond market.
By their product choices, foreign institutions favored bonds with sound liquidity such as policy bank bonds, Chinese government bonds and negotiable certificates of deposit (NCD), with their transactions of the three types of bonds accounting for 27 percent, 59 percent and 12 percent of their total cash bond turnover respectively.
By terms to maturity, foreign institutions mainly favored bonds with terms to maturity at less than one year, 1-3 years, 3-5 years and 7-10 years and their turnover of these bonds took up 39 percent, 13 percent, 15 percent and 26 percent of their aggregate cash bond turnover in January this year.
By the end of December, 2021, bond holdings held by foreign institutions under custody with China Central Depository & Clearing Co., Ltd. (CCDC), one of the central securities depositories in China, grossed 3.68 trillion yuan, up 27.68 percent year and year and an increase of 78.7 billion yuan from November 2021. CCDC is responsible for registration, custody, and settlement services of T-bonds, local government bonds, central bank bills, policy bank bonds, financial bonds, bonds issued by government-backed agencies, enterprise bonds referring to bonds issued by state-owned or controlled enterprises, credit asset-backed securities, etc. in China. (Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
