The yuan rose slightly against the dollar in the spot and offshore forwards markets on Thursday after the Chinese central bank set its daily yuan mid-point only slightly lower, despite the dollar's surge on global markets.
The US Dollar Index jumped 0.52 percent on Wednesday. But in an indication that the Chinese central bank would not use global dollar strength to weaken the yuan sharply, it set the yuan mid-point against the dollar at 6.8297 on Thursday, only marginally below Wednesday's 6.8279. The dollar index also edged higher on Thursday.
"If the yuan mid-point against the dollar had just tracked the overnight dollar strength against the basket of currencies in the dollar index, the mid-point would have been fixed weaker than 6.8300," said a dealer at a US bank in Shanghai. "The stronger-than-expected mid-point indicates the central bank is not yet ready to reverse the yuan's general upward trend against the dollar in the near term."
The spot yuan rate moved in a narrow range against the dollar for most of the session on Thursday, finishing at 6.8289 compared with Wednesday's close of 6.8297. Offshore, one-year dollar/yuan non-deliverable forwards were quoted at 6.4840 in late trade on Thursday, down from Wednesday's close of 6.4975.
Their latest level implied yuan appreciation of 5.33 percent against the dollar from the day's spot mid-point over the next 12 months, compared with 5.09 percent implied at Wednesday's close. Offshore one-year dollar/yuan volatilities were at 5.70 percent late on Thursday, near a two-month low of 5.69 percent hit two days ago, which dealers said showed an emerging consensus that yuan appreciation would slow in the long run.
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