BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) ?China's commodities made a come back after early morning losses on Monday despite China's second interest rate hike in two months.
The People's Bank of China (OOTC:BACHY) (PBoC), China's central bank, decided to raise the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points from December 26, the second rate rise in just over two months.
The move is regarded as part of a series of measures designed to cool down the domestic inflation. The country's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, accelerated to a 28-month high in November of 5.1 percent, while new loans reached 7.45 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of this year, compared to the government's full-year target of 7.5 trillion yuan.
Though the timing is unexpected, market had expected a second time of the interest rate hike and very likely to adopt a wait-and-see stance. As many analysts noted, the rate rise of 25 basis points is of a relatively small magnitude.
The country's major commodities gained a tad higher when trading closed on Monday as traders keep up buying momentum and the market continued to focus on positive fundamentals.
On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most actively traded contract of copper, for March delivery, ended 280 yuan higher at 68,720 yuan/t, while the bellwether rubber futures climbed 65 yuan higher to close at 37,110 yuan/t Monday afternoon.
The benchmark gold futures, tracking the uphill fashion, ended 0.74 yuan higher at 301.60 yuan/g.
Meanwhile on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, the benchmark soybean futures ended 33 yuan higher at 4,554 yuan/t on Monday. Though some of the major futures ended with a loss, but it was relatively small within a range of 30 to 50 yuan, and seemed already trend to pick up from the knee-jerk fall in the morning.
"We believe the impact will be short-lived and not bring about the bullish trend. Especially right now it's still the peak consuming season in China," said Wang Ping, analyst with Dongwu Futures. (Edited by Wang Li, wangle1@xinhua.org)
