SHANGHAI: The yuan was flat on Friday even as the central bank set the official guidance rate at an all-time high after the dollar plunged in overnight trade.

The dollar index, which tracks the dollar's value against a basket of currencies, hit 81.077 in overnight trade, its lowest level since late February, as markets awaited US jobs data.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint at 6.1620 on Friday morning, up 0.19 percent from Thursday and a new high.

But spot yuan declined to follow the midpoint and stayed relatively flat, changing hands at 6.1355 per dollar at midday, up only 0.01 percent from Thursday's close.

The spot price continued its trend of converging on the midpoint after spending several months consistently trading as far away from it as possible.

The traded exchange rate is currently allowed to rise or fall by 1 percent away from the intraday fixing, but thanks to strong bullish sentiment among Chinese corporates in recent months, the rate remained over 0.9 percent stronger than the midpoint until it finally began backing off last week.