China's yuan closed higher against the dollar on Thursday after the People's Bank of China set a stronger mid-point even in the face of the dollar edging higher overnight.
The mid-point setting came after the PBOC let the yuan fall only 0.18 percent on Wednesday despite a 1.2 percent jump in the US Dollar Index the day before, signalling the central bank wanted to set a floor for the yuan's fall.
Spot yuan finished at 6.6508 against the dollar, up from Wednesday's close of 6.6543. It is now up 2.64 percent since the PBOC depegged the currency in mid-June.
Before trading started, the PBOC set the day's mid-point at 6.6557, stronger than Wednesday's 6.6589. The fixing is the level from which the yuan may rise or fall 0.5 percent in a day. One-year non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) rose to 6.5240 bid late on Thursday from 6.5000 at Wednesday's close, with implied yuan appreciation in a year's time falling to 2.02 percent from 2.40 percent shown on Tuesday.