Foreign holdings of government bonds fall again

    FOREIGN investors cut their holdings of China’s government bonds for a second straight month in February, official data showed.

    Overseas investors’ holdings of Chinese treasury bonds fell 3.8 billion yuan (US$552.2 million) last month, bringing the total to 418 billion yuan, according to calculations based on data from the official bond clearing house. In January, foreign institutions’ holdings of Chinese government bonds fell 1.9 billion yuan, the first drop since October 2015.

    Sinopec to start operating Zhanjiang oil tanks

    SINOPEC Corp. is expected to start operating by June a new commercial crude oil tank farm in the southern Chinese city of Zhanjiang, where a large strategic reserve site is also under construction, three industry sources said.

    The new commercial tanks will store 8.5 million barrels, equivalent to over four supertankers. The tank farm consists of 12 tanks of 100,000 cubic meters each and three tanks of 50,000 cubic meters in Zhanjiang in Guangdong.

    BlackRock unit awarded RQFII quota

    A SUBSIDIARY of BlackRock Inc. has become the first United States-based asset manager to be awarded a Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) quota to invest in China’s capital markets.

    China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has granted an 11 billion yuan (US$1.60 billion) quota to BlackRock Fund Advisors. Including the most recent quota granted by the SAFE, BlackRock now has a combined RQFII quota of 35.1 billion yuan, among which BlackRock (Singapore) Ltd. has 20 billion yuan, BlackRock Asset Management North Asia Ltd. has 2 billion yuan and BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd. has 2.1 billion yuan.

    Steel futures recover from one-week low

    DOMESTIC rebar steel futures regained some lost ground Friday, after slipping to a one-week low earlier in the session, amid a cloudy outlook for demand in the world’s top consumer of the building material.

    The most active rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed up 0.2 percent at 3,566 yuan (US$517) a ton after touching a session low of 3,440 yuan, its lowest since Feb. 24. “Investors have cut positions to reap profit when the market sentiment is mixed,” said Xia Junyan, investment manager at Hangzhou CIEC Trading.