PBOC conducted CNY95 billion 7-day reverse repo today; bids CNY95 billion, allotment CNY95 billion, rate 1.40%, unchanged from previous operation.

Kpler said the Islamabad memorandum’s 60-day window expired on Aug. 17 with no deal, extension or ongoing talks; Tehran is pushing for a licensing-and-fees regime for the strait and Washington has rejected it. The memorandum boosted flows but did not restore normal transit. During the window roughly 374 mln barrels were cleared from the Middle East Gulf, averaging about 6.1 mln bpd; by contrast outbound volumes from April to the memorandum’s signing averaged about 2.3 mln bpd. Kpler defines cleared volume as non-Iran Strait of Hormuz transits plus Gulf of Oman net exports to avoid double counting. Even at the peak, exports equaled only about 40% of a 2025 Strait of Hormuz average of roughly 15 mln bpd; more than half of the window’s flows occurred in the first three weeks after the memorandum took effect, and flows had become sporadic, harder to track and re-accumulating behind the chokepoint by the window’s end.

Hong Kong-listed insurers advanced: Ping An (02318.HK) rose more than 3%; PICC P&C (02328.HK), PICC Group (01339.HK), China Life (02628.HK) and China Pacific Insurance (02601.HK) each gained over 2%.