SHANGHAI, April 7 (Reuters) - China's yuan briefly touched a
two-week high against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday before giving
back all the gains at midday, as investors became cautious and
awaited clear guidance from the greenback's movements in global
markets.
Earlier gains in the yuan were tracking a softer dollar,
currency traders said. The greenback hit a two-week low
against a basket of currencies after U.S. bond yields declined
as traders rolled back aggressive expectations that the Federal
Reserve will tighten its policy earlier than pledged.
Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China (PBOC)
set the midpoint rate at a near two-week high of
6.5384 per dollar, 143 pips or 0.2% firmer than the previous fix
of 6.5527.
In the spot market, onshore yuan opened at 6.5400
per dollar and jumped to 6.5361, the strongest level since March
25. It quickly pared gains and traded at 6.5413 at midday, 4
pips weaker than the previous late session close.
Several traders said investors adopted a rangebound trading
strategy to lock in quick profits for now, as some believed the
dollar's recent weakness should be temporary.
A trader at a Chinese bank said the correction in the dollar
would not last long as the massive stimulus package in the
United States should prop up the dollar in the long run to pile
some downside pressure on the yuan.
Li Liuyang, chief currency analyst at China Merchants Bank,
also pointed out that the yuan's recent performance was largely
tracking movements in the dollar rather than fundamentals.
"The next move of the dollar will largely determine the
direction of the yuan," Li said.
Separately, official data showed that overseas investors
added to their holdings of Chinese bonds in March, but net
purchases slowed as narrowing spreads and a weaker yuan reduced
their appeal.
The yuan was yet to react to comments made in a recent
central bank working paper, which said that China should set up
a yuan exchange rate futures market at an appropriate time and
guide domestic entities to use offshore currency futures markets
to hedge exchange rate risks.
The global dollar index rose to 92.34 at midday from the
previous close of 92.306, while the offshore yuan was
trading at 6.5446 per dollar.
The yuan market at 0403 GMT:
ONSHORE SPOT:
Item Current Previous Change
PBOC midpoint 6.5384 6.5527 0.22%
Spot yuan 6.5413 6.5409 -0.01%
Divergence from 0.04%
midpoint*
Spot change YTD -0.20%
Spot change since 2005 26.53%
revaluation
Key indexes:
Item Current Previous Change
Thomson 96.59 96.66 -0.1
Reuters/HKEX
CNH index
Dollar index 92.34 92.306 0.0
*Divergence of the dollar/yuan exchange rate. Negative number
indicates that spot yuan is trading stronger than the midpoint.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) allows the exchange rate to
rise or fall 2% from official midpoint rate it sets each
morning.
OFFSHORE CNH MARKET
Instrument Current Difference
from onshore
Offshore spot yuan 6.5446 -0.05%
*
Offshore 6.7242 -2.76%
non-deliverable
forwards
**
*Premium for offshore spot over onshore
**Figure reflects difference from PBOC's official midpoint,
since non-deliverable forwards are settled against the midpoint.
.
(Reporting by Winni Zhou and Andrew Galbraith; Editing by
Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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