The yuan jumped to a record high on Friday against the dollar on suspected intervention orchestrated by the central bank, its most explicit action in three months to deter speculators from betting on a fall in the currency. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) offered large amounts of dollars via major state banks, propelling the yuan to a record high of 6.3294 per dollar, currency traders said.
The yuan pulled back slightly by the close to trade at 6.3484, but was still up sharply from Thursday's close of 6.3735. On Friday, the PBOC fixed the mid-point at 6.3352 to the dollar, stronger than 6.3421 on Thursday. Trading of the yuan is limited to 0.5 percent either side of the daily mid-point. Despite the PBOC's attempts to set the yuan's exchange rate higher via the mid-point, a shortage of dollars in the onshore China market and broad dollar strength in global markets have pushed the yuan down to the weaker end of its band nearly every day in December.