China's yuan again eased against the US dollar on Tuesday, as there continued to be corporate demand for the greenback following the previous day's strongest fixing for the Chinese currency since its 2015 devaluation.
Globally, the dollar was largely steady against its major trading partners on Tuesday morning. The dollar index, which measures it against six other currencies, was 89.997 as of midday, compared with the previous close of 90.052.
Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 6.2833 per dollar, 69 pips or 0.1 percent weaker than Monday's fix of 6.2764, the firmest since August 2015.
In the spot market, the onshore yuan opened at 6.2845 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.2882 at midday, 72 pips weaker than the previous late session close and 0.08 percent softer than the midpoint. The Thomson Reuters/HKEX Global CNH index, which tracks the offshore yuan against a basket of currencies on a daily basis, stood at 97.62, weaker than the previous day's 97.76.
The offshore yuan was trading 0.15 percent firmer than the onshore spot at 6.2785 per dollar. Offshore one-year non-deliverable forwards contracts (NDFs), considered the best available proxy for forward-looking market expectations of the yuan's value, traded at 6.3741, 1.42 percent weaker than the midpoint.