PBOC continues repo sales Thursday

The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced on Thursday forward repurchase operations (repo) of93 billion yuan (15.2 billion U.S. dollars) from the money market.

It is the sixth time the central bank has launched repos since Feb. 18, with 365 billion yuan removed from the capital market.

On Tuesday, the PBOC announced 14-day and 28-day repos to withdraw 85 billion yuan from the money market.

As a result, the net capital return this week stood at 70 billion yuan, deducting as much as 108 billion yuan worth of repos due this week.

Jiang Chao, an analyst with Haitong Securities, estimated that, considering the central bank enhanced repos last month, the capital overstock rate will decrease to about 2 percent in March with liquidity back to a moderate level.