Renminbi exchange rate exposure: evidence from Chinese industries

This paper investigates sensitivity of stock returns of industry-sorted Chinese firms with respect to renminbi exchange rate movements. Strong evidence of significant exposure is documented for 7 out of 16 Chinese industries. Evidence is also found of the size asymmetry effects. In addition, we explore the characteristics of the exposure, and detect evidence of significant exposure among non-exporters in some of the industries. Special attention is given to examining the time-varying exposure under the impact of the new Chinese exchange rate regime in place since 2005, in which even stronger exchange rate exposure is reported. The conditional exposure estimated in this paper also reveals the close relation between stock returns and changes of the renminbi exchange rate.