Overseas institutions hold more RMB assets

BEIJING - Overseas institutions bought more in the Chinese bonds market in August despite the yuan's slide during the period, the latest data showed, as the lure of the Chinese market prevails.

Transactions by overseas institutional investors totaled 624.1 billion yuan ($88.05 billion), according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System and National Interbank Funding Center.

The trading volume was up 43 percent from the previous month and climbed 63 percent year-on-year.

"Global investors bought 347 billion yuan and sold 277.1 billion yuan, leading to a net purchase of 69.9 billion yuan," said the center.

By the end of August 2019, a total of 2,114 overseas participants had entered the Chinese interbank bond market, according to the center.

In Q2 2019, foreign institutions, represented by those under China's Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program, bought a large number of A-share stocks, increasing stakes in many listed companies, recent interim reports of listed companies showed.

To meet the demand of overseas investment, China's QFII quota amounted to $111.38 billion this year, more than tripling the number from last year, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

On the backdrop of loose monetary policy in developed economies, China is the only major economy whose monetary policy remains normal, said Sun Guofeng, head of the monetary policy department with the People's Bank of China.

Renminbi assets, still undervalued, posts stronger stability, and China is expected to become a "favored place" of global capital, Sun said.

As the opening up of China's bond market brings more favorable policies, foreign investors are expected to invest more in yuan-denominated bonds, said Industrial Securities in a research note.

China's yuan-denominated bonds were added to the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index starting April 1, as the world's third-largest bond market is opening up wider.

A total of 356 government and policy bank bonds will be added into the index during a 20-month period.