China's yuan firmed against the US dollar on Friday, on course for its fifth straight winning week, buoyed by rising corporate dollar sales and sustained strength in the country's exports. China's December exports rose 10.9 percent from a year earlier, beating analysts' forecast for a 9.1 percent increase, but cooling from a robust 12.3 percent gain in November, official data showed on Friday.
Prior to market opening on Friday, the People's Bank of China set the yuan midpoint rate at 6.4932 per dollar, breaching the key 6.5 per dollar level, and firmer than the previous fix of 6.5147 on Thursday. In the spot market, the onshore yuan opened at 6.4920 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.4820 at midday, 158 pips firmer than the previous late session close and 0.17 percent stronger than the midpoint.
If the yuan ends the late night session at the midday level, it would have strengthened 0.1 percent against the dollar. It firmed around 0.28 percent last week. The Thomson Reuters/HKEX Global CNH index, which tracks the offshore yuan against a basket of currencies on a daily basis, stood at 95.7, weaker than the previous day's 95.72.
The global dollar index fell to 91.838 from the previous close of 91.852. The offshore yuan was trading 0.07 percent weaker than the onshore spot at 6.4864 per dollar. Offshore one-year non-deliverable forwards contracts (NDFs), considered the best available proxy for forward-looking market expectations of the yuan's value, traded at 6.6195, 1.91 percent weaker than the midpoint.
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