Flash News

TREE NEWS reports: China’s industrial robot output rose 34.6% year-on-year in August, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Fu Linghui said at a State Council Information Office briefing on September 15. Output of 3D printing equipment and lithium-ion batteries grew 29.9% and 57.2% respectively, as equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing expanded rapidly.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday that the economy ran broadly stable in August, with momentum continuing to shift toward new growth drivers and an improved structure. The bureau cautioned that external headwinds have deepened and the domestic mismatch of strong supply against weak demand remains prominent, with some enterprises facing operational difficulties, leaving the foundation for steady growth still in need of consolidation.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that nationwide real estate development investment totaled 4.7979 trillion yuan in January-August, down 19.9% year on year, with residential investment down 19.7% at 3.7017 trillion yuan. New construction starts fell 24.8% to 298.94 million square meters, while new commercial housing sales dropped 12.1% by area and 13.0% by value. Second-hand home transactions rose 10.6% to 549.23 million square meters.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s value-added industrial output for large enterprises rose 5.2% year-on-year in August, accelerating from a 4.5% gain in July. The figure covers enterprises with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan. August’s reading marks a faster pace of growth than the prior month.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s urban fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% year on year in the January-August period, deepening from a 6.7% decline in the prior reading. The figure covers investment in fixed assets across urban areas and marks a further contraction in capital spending. No breakdown by sector was provided in the data.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s urban surveyed unemployment rate came in at 5.3% in August, up from 5.2% in July, the national statistics office’s monthly reading showed. The 0.1 percentage point increase marks a modest softening in the labour market of the world’s second-largest economy.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s retail sales of consumer goods rose 1.1% year on year in the January-to-August period, easing from a 1.2% gain in the prior reading, official data showed. The figure covers total social consumer goods retail sales for the first eight months of the year. It marks a slight slowdown from the previously reported pace.

TREE NEWS update: China officially designated the navigation zone for the Pinglu Canal on September 15, setting the inland section from Pingtang River mouth in Hengzhou, Nanning, to the Qinjiang bridge on the G75 Lanhai Expressway as a temporary “Inland Class B navigation zone.” The designation completes the navigation framework for the first canal linking a river to the sea since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

TREE NEWS update: Construction began in Shandong on the Berhani oilfield redevelopment project in Qatar, the largest international offshore oil and gas engineering contract China has ever undertaken, with a total contract value of $4 billion. The project is located about 100 kilometers east of the Qatari coastline, where maximum water depth is roughly 40 meters.

TREE NEWS update: Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense issued emergency alerts for Yanbu, Taif and Jeddah. The warnings cover the three cities, which sit on the Red Sea and western coast of the kingdom. No further details on the nature of the threat or the duration of the alerts were provided.

TREE NEWS reports: Singapore’s Straits Times Index dropped 1% on the day. The decline marks a lower close for the benchmark gauge of the city-state’s equity market.

TREE NEWS reports: The death toll from Nepal’s mudslide disaster rose to 1,396 as of 20:00 local time on September 14. The updated count marks a further rise in fatalities as recovery work continues in the affected areas.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s National Bureau of Statistics said August new commercial home prices fell year-on-year in first-tier cities by 0.9%, narrowing 0.2 percentage points from July. Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen dropped 2.3%, 1.9% and 2.3% respectively, while Shanghai rose 3.0%. Second- and third-tier city prices fell 2.7% and 4.1% year-on-year, each narrowing 0.1 percentage points.

TREE NEWS reports: The CSI Convertible Bond Index opened down 0.03%, with Luwei, Weidao, Kema, Changhai and Benchu convertible bonds leading declines at 1.74%, 1.67%, 1.66%, 1.65% and 1.51% respectively. Haohan, Heda, Shanshi, Mingxin and Tonghe convertible bonds led gains, rising 3.61%, 3.34%, 2.65%, 1.43% and 1.33%.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s treasury futures opened with the 30-year main contract up 0.09%, the 10-year up 0.01%, the 5-year flat at 0.00% and the 2-year flat at 0.00%. The modest gains in longer-dated contracts outpaced the shorter tenors at the open.

TREE NEWS update: Chinese auto whole-vehicle stocks extended their rally, with Ankai Bus hitting a second straight daily limit-up and Zotye, Haima, Zhongtong Bus and Shuguang opening higher. GAC Group announced it is planning to issue shares to acquire part of a whole-vehicle joint venture held by FAW Group.

TREE NEWS reports: China’s major stock indices opened lower, with the Shanghai Composite down 0.14% at 3879.73. The Shenzhen Component fell 0.17% to 13362.17, the ChiNext Index slipped 0.14% to 3280.85, and the CSI 300 dropped 0.14% to 4473.81. The STAR 50 declined 0.26% to 1524.27, the CSI 500 lost 0.27% to 7550.68, and the CSI 1000 eased 0.20% to 7453.47.

TREE NEWS update: China’s central bank injected a net 92 billion yuan into the banking system through open market operations, with 597 billion yuan in overnight reverse repos and zero 7-day reverse repos, against 505 billion yuan in maturing reverse repos. The operation marks a shift toward shorter-tenor liquidity provision by the People’s Bank of China.

TREE NEWS reports: Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index opened 0.07% higher at 24,934.06, while the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.47%. Iluvatar CoreX gained 3.5%, with MINIMAX, Lenovo and Meituan each up more than 1%.

TREE NEWS update: China’s National Bureau of Statistics is scheduled to publish its August 70-city home price data at 09:30 Beijing time. The monthly index tracks new and second-hand residential price movements across 70 major Chinese cities and is a key gauge of the country’s property market. No figures were released in the reminder.