South Korea's foreign exchange reserves were $427.95 billion in July, up from $427.36 billion in June.

At an Aug 4 H2 2026 meeting, the PBOC Shanghai headquarters said it will firmly implement an appropriately loose monetary policy and press financial institutions to more actively tap effective credit demand. It will deploy structural monetary-policy tools, support a Shanghai bond market technology board, and steadily deepen financial reform and opening, including improving the FX management framework and advancing cross-border trade financing, overseas lending and overseas listing policies. The HQ urged stronger SME FX-hedging capacity, coordination of cross-border and offshore finance with accelerated pilots for offshore business reform, and faster digital renminbi adoption and ecosystem building. It also prioritized strengthening macroprudential frameworks, systemic risk prevention and cross-border risk monitoring, and cracking down on illegal financial activity.

Mainland A-shares reversed a weak open to rally; ChiNext Index rose 2% in the afternoon after briefly falling over 3% at the open. Shenzhen Composite Index +2.23%, Shanghai Composite Index +1.48%. MLCC, memory-chip and PCB sectors led gains.