The yuan ended down against the dollar on Thursday after the People's Bank of China fixed its midpoint 97 pips lower from the previous day, mainly because of a jump in the dollar index. The central bank let the midpoint fall back from Wednesday's record high of 6.2919 to 6.3016 per dollar, down 0.15 percent, the biggest single-day percentage fall in one-and-half months.
Spot yuan ended at 6.3002 against the dollar, lower than Wednesday's close of 6.2936. "Seems the midpoint is following the overseas market for now," said a dealer at a Chinese bank in Shanghai. "The dollar index was really strong overnight." The dollar index was at 78.68 against a basket of currencies after jumping 0.59 percent on Wednesday.
In the offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market, the benchmark one-year NDFs implied yuan appreciation of 0.28 percent, down slightly from 0.31 percent they implied at Wednesday's close Positive news suggesting that the world's second-largest economy could avoid a hard landing had little immediate effect on yuan trade.