China's yuan ended its
four-day decline on Monday, finishing unchanged as bargain hunters moved in to
pick up the currency at lower rates after last week's decline, dealers said.
The yuan closed at 8.0505 against the dollar, the same as Friday's
closing price. At one point it rose past the 8.0500 mark to 8.0486, only to slip
back towards the close of trading.
"There are cheap yuan deals out there just now," said a dealer at a Chinese
bank. "People were beginning to buy yuan again for the long term."
Last week's decline in the currency prompted some dealers to speculate that
China's central bank had been behind dollar purchases at Shanghai's Exchange
that caused the currency to weaken.
But on Saturday central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan told reporters in
Beijing that the yuan's recent downward trend -- following months of gradual
upward movement -- was due to changes in the dollar's rate against the euro and
the yen, implying that the bank had not been behind the new trend.
"I don't think Zhou's comments had any effect on today's trading. It was far
more about what's happening on global markets," said the dealer.
The immediate trend for the next day or two was not clear, said the dealer,
although the yuan was expected to rise over the course of the week.
The yuan rose to 6.7650 against 100 Japanese yen from Friday's last-quoted
6.8090. It ended Monday at 9.6200 against the euro, down slightly from 9.6050 on
Friday.
