China's yuan closed lower against the dollar on Monday after hitting its highest intraday level since its 2005 revaluation, pausing to consolidate after rapid gains late last week. The yuan ended at 7.6313 to the dollar, down from Friday's 7.6254, as several traders placed orders to build up dollar positions, dealers said.
It had reached 7.6218 to the dollar in early trade, its highest since Beijing revalued the currency and abolished its peg to the dollar in July 2005. Before the start of trade, the central bank set the yuan's daily mid-point at 7.6213 to the dollar, the strongest since the revaluation and up from Friday's 7.6238.
"The yuan scored its biggest weekly gain last week. The slip today was only a technical correction," said a Shanghai-based trader with a major European bank.
In the first five months of the year, China's urban fixed investment rose 25.9 percent from a year earlier, picking up from 25.5 percent growth in the January-April period. That followed an unexpectedly large trade surplus in May and a 27-month high in consumer price inflation for the month.
The yuan has appreciated a further 6.39 percent since its revaluation. Many economists and traders expect it to continue its uptrend and to rise about 4 to 5 percent for the whole of 2007.