Yuan moves up

China's yuan edged up against the dollar on Wednesday, shrugging off the decision by rating agency Moody's to downgrade the outlook for Chinese sovereign debt. Moody's changed its outlook on Chinese government debt to "negative" from "stable", citing uncertainty over authorities' capacity to implement economic reforms, rising government debt and falling reserves.
On Wednesday, the central bank set the midpoint rate at 6.549 per dollar prior to market open, the softest in a month, and 0.16 percent weaker than the previous fix 6.5385.
In the spot market, yuan opened at 6.5530 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.5517 at midday, 0.03 percent firmer than the previous close.
The offshore yuan converged with its onshore counterpart by midday, with both trading at 6.5517 per dollar.
Onshore yuan softened 0.1 percent against the euro by the lunch time at 7.1186. It strengthened 0.5 percent against the Japanese yen, hovering at 5.7560 to 100 yen.