Month: April 2021

(Xinhua)17:42, January 04, 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — Chinese stocks kicked off the first trading day of 2021 on Monday on an upbeat note, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index up 0.86 percent at 3,502.96 points.

The Shenzhen Component Index closed 2.47 percent higher at 14,827.47 points.

The combined turnover of stocks covered by the two indices expanded to 1.16 trillion yuan (about 178.02 billion U.S. dollars).

Stocks related to pork, liquor production and military defense led the gains, with shares of Muyuan Foods Co. Ltd surging by the daily limit of 10 percent to close at 84.81 yuan apiece.

Shares in banks, eye care and insurance were among the biggest losers.

The ChiNext Index, tracking Chinas NASDAQ-style board of growth enterprises, gained 3.77 percent to close at 3,078.11 points.

(Xinhua)08:49, January 05, 2021

NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — Oil prices retreated on Monday after major oil producers adjourned their meeting to Tuesday with no agreement on output.

The West Texas Intermediate for February delivery lost 90 cents to settle at 47.62 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for March delivery decreased 71 cents to close at 51.09 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, widely known as OPEC+, ended discussions on Monday without agreement on production levels for February. The meeting will resume on Tuesday.

In their last meeting, OPEC+ agreed to boost oil production by 500,000 barrels per day from January and said they would meet monthly, starting January, to decide on further production adjustments for the following month.

The COVID-19 pandemic damaged the market for crude in 2020. For the past year, the U.S. benchmark slumped 20.5 percent, while Brent crude lost 21.5 percent.

(Xinhua)08:55, January 05, 2021

NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — U.S. stocks reversed earlier gains to finish noticeably lower on Monday, the first trading session of 2021, amid lingering coronavirus concerns.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 382.59 points, or 1.25 percent, to 30,223.89. The SP 500 fell 55.42 points, or 1.48 percent, to 3,700.65. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 189.84 points, or 1.47 percent, to 12,698.45.

Earlier in the day, all the major indexes traded higher, with both the 30-stock index and the SP 500 briefly hitting new record highs.

Ten of the 11 primary SP 500 sectors ended in red, with real estate down 3.29 percent, leading the laggards. Energy eked out a gain of 0.13 percent, the best-performing group.

U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower with seven of the top 10 stocks by weight in the SP U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.

Spiraling COVID-19 infections continue to present a headwind.

The United States has registered more than 20.7 million confirmed cases with related deaths exceeding 352,000 as of Monday afternoon, showed a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

U.S. stocks experienced dramatic moves in 2020, driven by fears over the pandemic and an economic recession.

The SP 500 slumped nearly 34 percent in only 23 trading sessions earlier in the past year, but equities managed to bounce back and post solid yearly gains even as U.S. economy struggled to recover.

For the year 2020, the Dow rose 7.3 percent, while the SP 500 and the Nasdaq advanced 16.3 percent and 43.6 percent, respectively.

(Xinhua)09:37, January 05, 2021

HAIKOU, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — Duty-free sales in Chinas island province of Hainan reached 540 million yuan (about 83.6 million U.S. dollars) during the three-day New Year holiday, an increase of 195.16 percent year on year, Haikou Customs said Monday.

Hainans offshore duty-free shops received some 76,000 customers and sold 669,000 products during the period, up 80.9 percent and 200 percent year on year, respectively.

From July 1, 2020, Hainan increased its annual tax-free shopping quota from 30,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan per person. The categories of duty-free goods have been expanded from 38 to 45, with some electronic products such as mobile phones and laptops added to the list.

The previous tax-free limit of 8,000 yuan for a product has also been lifted, and the number of categories with a single-purchase quantity limit has been significantly reduced.

Since the upgrade of the policy, duty-free sales hit 19.99 billion yuan by the end of 2020, up 191.6 percent year on year.

Adding to the previous four offshore duty-free shops — two in the capital city Haikou, one in Qionghai and another in the popular resort city of Sanya, three new shops opened on Dec. 30, 2020 in Sanya, one at Sanya Phoenix International Airport and two in downtown.

Haikou will open another three offshore duty-free shops. The one at Haikou Meilan International Airport will open for business after terminal 2 begins operation while the other two are scheduled to open ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival, which falls on Feb. 12.

(Xinhua)09:56, January 05, 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) — The State Council, Chinas cabinet, has made arrangements to optimize the countrys business environment by streamlining administrative procedures and strengthening regulation.

A better business environment will further vitalize market entities, and play a crucial role in facilitating steady economic recovery amid complex situations, according to a statement issued Monday after a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

While reviewing the nationwide implementation of a guideline for improving the business environment, the meeting announced targeted measures to streamline administrative procedures, improve services and enhance regulatory effectiveness.

A third-party assessment was conducted on the implementation of the guideline in nine provinces, according to the meeting, and the results showed that the implementation has yielded positive results.

Last year, despite extremely difficult conditions, more than 20 million new market entities were established, bucking the downward trend and maintaining a high level of vitality, which could not have been achieved without a constantly improving business environment, said the meeting.

The meeting stressed further efforts in pressing ahead with reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services, including innovative measures such as one integrated license.

More work will be done to promote fair competition, make the bidding for government projects more market-oriented and improve oversight efficiency, according to the meeting.

The meeting passed the draft stamp tax law, which will bring stamp duty on securities trading into legal norms.

Besides appropriate simplification of tax items and tax cuts, the draft law has canceled stamp duty on items such as licenses, and also made clear that the current preferential stamp duty policy remains unchanged.

The meeting also passed the draft amendment to the regulations on grain circulation management, in a bid to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of grain producers, traders and consumers and to ensure food security.

The draft amendment strictly regulates policy-based grain management and specifies measures to prevent and reduce grain losses and waste.

(Xinhua)19:08, December 31, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinas gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to exceed 100 trillion yuan (15.38 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in Beijing Thursday when delivering a New Year speech to ring in 2021.

China has become the first major economy in the world to register positive growth for the year, Xi said.

(Xinhua)19:24, December 31, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — China has put poverty reduction high on its agenda of fiscal expenditure arrangements, ensuring fiscal support for winning the war against poverty, according to Finance Minister Liu Kun.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, special funds for poverty alleviation from Chinas central government rose to 146.1 billion yuan (about 22.39 billion U.S. dollars) this year, Liu told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The country has seen an increase of 20 billion yuan of such funds each year over the past five years, with the total amount of allocated funds in the 2016-2020 period surpassing 530 billion yuan, Liu said.

The central government also earmarked 30 billion yuan this year to fund efforts on lifting the remaining poor population out of poverty, ensuring employment of poverty-stricken labor force and linking sales and production in rural areas.

Meanwhile, the country also used various policy instruments such as tax cuts, government investment funds and agricultural credit guarantees to channel more social capital into the countrys poverty relief work.

China has decided to set a five-year transition period for counties that have shaken off poverty, and gradually shift the policy focus toward comprehensively promoting rural vitalization, according to the two-day annual central rural work conference that concluded in Beijing on Tuesday.

Fiscal policies will remain generally stable during the transition period, with more support rendered to the countrys western regions to help them consolidate poverty-relief achievements, Liu added.

(Xinhua)20:59, December 31, 2020

BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) — Chinas regulators on Thursday announced a policy to tighten regulation for loans to the real estate sector and home mortgage loans to guard against systemic risks and improve the stability of the financial system.

The Peoples Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will require domestic banks to limit the ratio between their outstanding property loans and total RMB loans.

The two regulators also set ceilings for the ratio of home mortgage loans.

The upper limits are set in five different grades based on factors such as asset sizes and functions of financial institutions.

The caps for large banks are the highest at 40 percent for property loans and 32.5 percent for home mortgage loans, involving lenders such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the China Construction Bank.

Medium-sized banks, such as China Merchants Bank, will see their ceilings set at 27.5 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

The policy will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021, but will provide a transition period of up to four years for those that fail to meet the standards.

(Xinhua)13:18, January 01, 2021

China on Thursday unveiled the 2020 negative list for foreign investment access in Hainan free trade port. It will come into effect on Feb. 1, 2021.

The negative list, jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce, introduces measures to promote opening-up in crucial areas, such as value-added telecommunications and education, expand commercial services, and to ease market access in the manufacturing and mining industries.

Approved by the State Council, the 27-item list is significant in promoting investment liberalization and facilitation in the Hainan free trade port. It should also accelerate the formation of internationally competitive opening-up policies and systems.

Restrictions on foreign investment access to online data processing and online transaction processing businesses will no longer apply when the list takes effect.

Overseas high-level universities and vocational colleges specializing in science and engineering, agriculture, and medicine will be allowed to run on the island independently.

Foreign ownership limits for passenger car manufacturing will be lifted. Regulations prohibiting foreign investment in the exploration, mining and ore dressing of rare earth, radioactive minerals and tungsten will no longer apply either.

(Xinhua)13:19, January 01, 2021

Starting from next year, China will allow the import of recycling iron and steel materials that meet the national standard since they do not constitute solid waste, authorities said on Thursday.

Strict requirements on import management of recycling iron and steel materials were stipulated, according to a notice jointly issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), the National Development and Reform Commission, the General Administration of Customs, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China officially released the national standard on recycling iron and steel materials on Dec. 17 and will implement it on Jan. 1 next year.

The standard specifies the definition, classification, technical requirements, inspection methods, and acceptance rules for recycling iron and steel materials.

It will provide standard technical support for the use of high-quality recycled steel resources from both home and abroad.

Chinese authorities said earlier that the country would ban all solid waste imports from Jan. 1, 2021.