The yuan fell slightly against the dollar in key offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) on Thursday as the US Thanksgiving Day holiday made trading sluggish in overseas markets, offsetting the impact of a globally weak dollar, traders said. Benchmark one-year dollar/yuan NDFs rose slightly to 6.6110 bid late on Thursday compared with Wednesday's close of 6.6050.
Twelve-month yuan appreciation implied by NDFs fell to 3.26 percent measured from the Chinese central bank's daily mid-point, compared with 3.37 percent implied at Wednesday's close. "Thin trade made today's NDF quotes of little significance," said a dealer at a US bank in Shanghai.
Spot yuan edged up against the dollar on Thursday after the central bank set the mid-point, or reference rate, at a two-week high following US dollar weakness. The dollar index nudged up 0.3 percent to 74.563 in early Eroupean trade after dropping to a 15-month low of 74.227 the previous day. The bank fixed the yuan's daily mid-point at a two-week high of 6.8268 versus the dollar, slightly above Wednesday's level of 6.8275.