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China money rates,

repos mixed

SHANGHAI: China's interbank renminbi market ended mixed on Thursday, with some short-term financing centres sidelines, traders said.

The monthly rate for the seven-day contract closed up at 1.11 percent from 1.005, 20-day ended higher at 1.023 percent from 1.014, and 30-day fell to 1.002 percent from 1.029 on Wednesday.

The 60-day contract closed down at 1.05 percent from 1.080, 90-day rose to 1.032 percent from 1.014, and 120-day was unchanged at 1.032 percent.

Volumes are not posted on the market.

Traders said trading was slow, with no sign of the central bank in the market. "So several short-term financing centres withdrew from the market," one trader said.

The centres are members of the interbank renminbi market.

The central bank has bought a total of 390 million yuan in short-term treasury bills in the past three weeks, traders added.

Shanghai City Co-operative Bank and Bank of Communications were two major suppliers of funds on the market on Thursday, a trader said.

Contracts on the treasury bill repurchase market in Shanghai ended mixed in active trading on Thursday.

The annual rate for the most active seven-day contract rose to 10.71 percent from 10.70 on Wednesday. Other contracts ended mixed.

Combined volume of T-bill repo papers fell to 1.74 million from the record 2.38 million lots on Wednesday. One lot is 1,000 yuan face value of treasury bills and the minimum trading volume is 100 lots.

Traders said a fall in the domestic A share market was the main reason for reduced turnover on the repo market.

On the T-bill spot market, the most active three-year bond that matures in March 1999 kept rising to 105.25 yuan from 105.00 yuan. Volume rose to 671,142 lots, worth 706 million yuan from 642,817 lots on Wednesday.

Other contracts followed, ending mostly higher. Combined volume of the nine-contract market fell to 1.48 million lots from 1.66 million on Wednesday.

Traders said the rise was mainly on expectations that individual bank deposit rates will fall in the second half of 1996.-Reuter