The January LPR for Shanghai and Shenzhen remains unchanged, A-shares three major indices open slightly higher, chip stocks are relatively weak

The People's Bank of China announced today (20th) that the one-year and five-year Loan Prime Rates (LPR) remain unchanged at 3% and 3.5%, respectively, in line with market expectations. On the same day, the central bank conducted a seven-day reverse repurchase operation of 324 billion yuan in the open market, with the operation rate remaining at 1.4%. Today, 358.6 billion yuan of reverse repos are maturing, resulting in a net withdrawal of 34.6 billion yuan. The central parity rate of the yuan was raised by 45 points to 7.0006 against the US dollar, continuing to reach a high not seen in over two and a half years.

The three major A-share indices opened slightly higher. The SSE Index opened at 4,116 points, up 0.06% or 2 points. The Shenzhen Index opened at 14,307 points, up 13 points or 0.09%. The ChiNext Index opened at 3,340 points, up 2 points or 0.09%.

Banking stocks opened lower, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (601398.SH) down 0.1% and China Construction Bank (601939.SH) flat.

Chip stocks were soft, with SMIC A (688981.SH) down 0.2%. Hua Hong (688347.SH) opened flat. AI chip stock Cambricon (688256.SH) opened down 0.2%.

In addition, CATL (300750.SZ) opened up 0.3%. BYD (002594.SZ) opened flat