China's yuan rose to more than a three-week high against the dollar on the last trading session of the year, partly helped by a pledge from authorities to keep the local currency stable. The yuan is still set for an annual loss, reflecting strong depreciation pressure this year in the face of rising economic headwinds, including a Sino-US trade dispute and slowing global growth.
Prior to market opening on Friday, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 6.8632 per dollar, 262 pips or 0.38 percent firmer than the previous fix of 6.8894. Friday's official guidance rate was the strongest since Dec.6. That lifted the spot market, with onshore yuan opening at 6.8620 per dollar and rising to a high of 6.8508 in early deals - also the strongest level since Dec.5.
As of midday, it was changing hands at 6.8566, 109 pips firmer than the previous late session close. If the onshore spot yuan finishes the late night session at the midday level, it would have weakened about 5.1 percent to the dollar this year. That would also mark four years in the red out of five, with the exception of 2017, when the yuan rose about 6.8 percent on the dollar for its biggest gain in nine years.
Traders attributed Friday's gain in the yuan to support from the central bank, which vowed to keep the currency largely stable. While the statement by the PBOC was a reiteration of recent comments from senior officials, markets quickly lapped it up since the Central Economic Work Conference, a key policy meeting, did not mention exchange rate policy last Friday. The absence of comment on the currency had prompted some concerns whether the government would tolerate further yuan depreciation.
"(The wording) reflected that China was still unwilling to see the yuan breaching 7 per dollar, especially before the year-end, as that could result in an accumulation in yuan depreciation expectation pressure," Stephen Chiu, FX and rates strategist at China Construction Bank (Asia) in Hong Kong said. Several yuan traders said the pledge for a stable yuan helped calm market concerns, though the size of gains in the yuan was amplified by low year-end liquidity.
Friday marks the last trading day for domestic foreign exchange market. Many market participants are already on vacation, while others were also liquidating their positions before a four-day New Year holiday. Trading volume shrunk further to $9.792 billion at midday, compared with about a half-day volume of about $15 billion on normal days.