China treasury bond futures open higher Friday

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's five-year treasury bond futures opened higher on Friday, with the contract for settlement in September 2016 opened 0.025 percent higher at 101.61 yuan (about 15.3 U.S. dollars).

The contract for settlement in December 2016 opened 0.035 percent higher at 101.3 yuan. The contract for settlement in March 2017 opened 0.074 percent higher at 100.995 yuan.

The contracts are agreements to buy or sell treasury bonds at a predetermined price and set date. They allow investors to bet on and profit from the movements in the value of the bonds.

The treasury bond futures were launched at the Shanghai-based China Financial Futures Exchange and started trading on Sept. 6, 2013.