The yuan closed down slightly versus the dollar on Wednesday after the People's Bank of China set a weaker midpoint for a third day to track the dollar's global strength, traders said. The PBOC let the midpoint, or its reference rate from which the yuan can rise or fall 0.5 percent a day, weaken by 0.37 percent over the past three days, the currency's biggest three-day percentage decline since early January.
The central bank's move coincided with recent talk by officials, including PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan, about the possibility of a wider yuan trading band. Spot yuan closed at 6.3099 versus the dollar, slightly weaker than Tuesday's close of 6.3080 after the PBOC set the midpoint at 6.3213 compared with Tuesday's 6.3141. In the offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market, the benchmark one-year NDFs implied yuan appreciation of 0.21 percent in afternoon trade, compared with 0.15 percent they implied at Tuesday's close.