In the Asian session on Friday, the Chinese yuan rose against the US dollar after a report showed that China’s manufacturing sector expanded in March.
The Markit/HSBC purchasing mangers’ index edged up to 51.8 in March from 51.7 in February. The score was weaker than the flash estimate of 52.5.
Production grew for an eighth consecutive month in March, but the pace of expansion was more subdued than that seen throughout the last quarter.
Meanwhile, China’s official purchasing managers index rose for the first time in four moths in March, data from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) showed.
The CFLP PMI rose to 53.4 in March from 52.2 in February. The new orders index rebounded to score 55.2, 0.9 percentage points above February level. Production also picked up during the month with the index rising by 1.9 percentage points from a month ago to 55.7.
The yuan is currently worth 6.5460 per dollar, compared to yesterday’s close of 6.5490.
The People’s Bank of China set today’s central parity rate for the dollar-yuan pair at 6.5527, compared to Thursday’s daily reference rate of 6.5564.
The Chinese central bank sets the central parity rate every morning and allows the currency to fluctuate up to 0.5% from that level.