Chinese banks are selling dollars to support the yuan

Major Chinese state-owned banks sold US dollars in the foreign exchange market for a second day to support the yuan.

The yuan came under renewed depreciation pressure after ratings agency Moody's cut its outlook on China's sovereign credit ratings from stable to negative on Dec. 5, citing expectations of a slowdown in economic growth and risks in the real estate market.

On Tuesday, state-owned banks were busy buying the yuan in foreign exchange markets to prevent it from weakening too much, and their dollar selling became very strong after Moody's statement.

State-owned banks again intervened in early trade today, but dollar selling was rather weak, sources said.

With China's economy stuttering and the US dollar rising until recently, the yuan has had a rocky year, at one point weakening 6.14% against the greenback before giving back much of the losses on recent views that US interest rates are reached their peak./BGNES