The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, on Thursday continued to pump cash into the financial system through open market operations to maintain liquidity in the market.

The PBOC conducted 30 billion yuan (about 4.36 billion U.S. dollars) of 14-day reverse repos, a liquidity-injecting process in which the central bank purchases securities from commercial banks through bidding, with an agreement to sell them back in the future.

The interest rate for the operation stood at 2.7 percent.

The moves aimed to ensure stable liquidity in the middle of the year, the statement said.

No reverse repos matured on Thursday.

China vowed to keep its prudent monetary policy "neither too tight nor too loose" while maintaining market liquidity at a reasonably ample level in 2019.