Bill Weekly Review: Buyers Outweigh Sellers, Ticket Prices Fluctuate and Decline (March 16–20, 2026)

01

Weekly Review of the Money Market

This week (2026.3.16—2026.3.20), the central bank conducted RMB 242.3 billion worth of reverse repos, RMB 250 billion of treasury cash time deposits, and RMB 500 billion of buyout-style reverse repos. Given that, during this week, RMB 176.5 billion of 7-day reverse repos matured and RMB 600 billion of buyout-style reverse repos matured, the week achieved net liquidity injection of RMB 215.8 billion.

With net liquidity injection this week, money market interest rates remained stable. Compared with last Friday, overnight, 7-day, and 14-day Shibor this week moved by -0.20 BP, -4.00 BP, and 2.80 BP to 1.3190%, 1.4170%, and 1.5230%, respectively. DR001, DR007, and DR014 weighted average rates moved by -0.09 BP, -4.07 BP, and 3.44 BP from the prior trading day to 1.3207%, 1.4209%, and 1.5263%, respectively.

Figure 1: Trend of Shanghai Interbank Offered Rates (Shibor)

02

Weekly Review of the Bills Market

In the re-discount market, the bills market as a whole (3.16-3.20) this week showed a volatile downward trend. Driven by continued market entry for allocation by major banks, market buy-side sentiment was steadily released, becoming the core driving force behind this week’s bill price declines. Although market supply and demand played a tug-of-war around midweek, and bill prices experienced brief fluctuations, under the guidance of major banks cutting prices to pick up tickets, the re-discount prices of longer-tenor products—such as national-government bank bills—reached new lows repeatedly. Near the end of the week, as some buy-side demand was met on a phased basis, market sentiment stabilized, and bill prices stopped falling and bottomed out. By the close, the quoted prices for all maturities of dual-guarantee national bills were: 4-month 1.55-1.56%, 5-month 1.55-1.56%, 6-month 1.43%, 7-month 1.33-1.34%, 8-month 1.33-1.34%, 9-month 1.17%.

Figure 3: Interest rate information in the Puran Jinfu re-discount market

Trend

In the direct-discount market, in the primary market this week, bill sources rebounded after falling, and corporate ticket issuance sentiment was gradually released. At the start of the week, due to the drop in supply, buy-side demand took the lead, and some direct-discount banks gradually lowered their quotes, bringing bill yields down and causing them to trade in a downward range. In the second half of the week, as the end-of-month period approached, buy-side allocation demand continued to be released. However, once supply growth increased, overall supply and demand remained balanced, and bill yields overall edged down slightly while moving within a range. Overall, buy-side sentiment dominated this week, driving bill yields to trend downward in a volatile manner.

Figure 5: Interest rate information in the Puran Jinfu direct-discount market

Trend

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