HONG KONG: China's yuan firmed slightly on Monday as a landmark scheme connecting the Hong Kong and mainland stock markets got underway, gaining against a dollar that slipped into pause mode after its recent strength against a basket of major currencies.
On Monday, spot yuan stood at 6.1260 per dollar in late morning trades, 0.07 percent stronger than Friday's close of 6.1307 per dollar.
The People's Bank of China fixed the daily midpoint fixing at 6.1409 per dollar, little changed from Friday's fix at 6.1399.
A trading link that will let Hong Kong and Shanghai investors buy and sell shares on each other's bourse debuted on Monday, in a major step towards opening China's tightly controlled capital markets.
The yuan has made steady gains since May, rising more than 2.2 percent against the dollar thanks to China's strong trade surpluses and bucking a trend of weakening Asian currencies amid a strengthening dollar in global markets.
The dollar index against a basket of major currencies has jumped more than 9 percent so far in the second half of this year.
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