China's yuan bounces after another surprisingly strong fix

HONG KONG: China's yuan jumped on Monday after the People's Bank of China fixed the daily midpoint surprisingly higher against the greenback.

The yuan jumped to a high of 6.2352 in early trade after the central bank set the daily midpoint fixing at its highest level since late March at 6.1485, comfortably beating banks' models and surprising markets, which had expected the fixing to be little changed from Friday.

The strong fix lifted the renminbi and pulled up other Asian currencies in its wake.

Over the weekend, data showed China's exports gained steam in May thanks to firmer global demand but an unexpected fall in imports signaled weaker domestic activity.