China’s Central Bank is Trying to Stabilize the Markets

Chinese officials are working around the clock to tackle the problems caused by the coronavirus outbreak. China is struggling to deal with the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak.

Recently, the People’s Bank of China reduced the lending benchmark rate on Thursday. The central bank made the decision to reduce the loan prime rate (LPR) by ten basis points.

Moreover, it also changed the 5-year LPR by five basis points.

The People’s Bank of China also reduced the rate of medium-term loans. Chinese officials lowered the rate of 200 billion yuan ($28.65 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility loans to financial institutions. The bank decreased the rate from 3.25% to 3.15%.

Authorities are trying to contain the spread of this virus. Officials imposed restrictions to tackle this problem.

Stock markets in China and other countries

Mainland Chinese stocks strengthened their positions on Thursday. As mentioned above, the country’s central bank decided to cut its loan prime rate (LPR).

The Shanghai Composite rose 1.84% to around 3,030.15.

Meanwhile, the Shenzhen composite gained 2.152% to about 1,886.14. The Shenzhen component gained 2.43% to 11,509.09.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index declined by 0.28% as of its final hour of trading.

Stock indexes in Japan, South Korea, and Australia also reached positive results.

For example, Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.34% to 23,479.15. In the meantime, the Topix index rose 0.16% to 1,674.48.

South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.67% to 2,195.50.

The S&P/ASX 200 index added 0.25% to close at 7,162.50. The country’s unemployment rate increased on a seasonally adjusted basis in January.  The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January rose to 5.3% from a reading of 5.1% in December. Based on the information provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

On February 19, shares of airline Qantas jumped 5.87% following the company’s announcement that it was adjusting its capacity to Asia. Australia’s flag carrier had to adapt its capacity due to an ongoing virus outbreak in China.