The yuan closed up slightly against the dollar on Monday after the Chinese central bank set a stronger mid-point, but traders said the market was still wary that the government may engineer a pause in yuan appreciation amid unstable global economic and market conditions.
Spot yuan closed at 6.3706, up slightly from Friday's close of 3.3785. It has now risen 3.44 percent since the start of this year and 7.15 percent since it was depegged from the dollar in June 2010. Before trading began, the PBOC set the mid-point of the day at 6.3710 compared with Friday's 6.3762. The central bank uses the reference rate to signal the government's intentions for the yuan, which could rise or fall 0.5 percent from the mid-point in a day.
Offshore, one-year dollar/yuan non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) were bid at 6.3760 in late trade, falling from 6.3900 at the close on Friday. They implied yuan depreciation of 0.08 percent in 12 months from Monday's PBOC mid-point, compared with depreciation of 0.30 percent they implied on Friday.