China's yuan ended weaker on Monday, slightly below Friday's close despite starting from a stronger midpoint, as traders remained reluctant to test the recently widened trading band. Spot yuan closed at 6.3088 per dollar, 3 points weaker than the previous close and only 0.18 percent away from its starting midpoint of 6.2970.
The People's Bank of China set the yuan's midpoint to the dollar 72 pips stronger than Friday's fix in response to a slight weakening in the dollar index late last week. The dollar index fell to 79.184 at Friday's close from 79.561 at end of Thursday.
However, the yuan started out trading below the midpoint, as it has done since mid-March, and a trader at a state-owned bank said that although market liquidity remained ample, volatility and trading activity were sedate given a lack of clear direction in the market.