China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high on Thursday, breaking the 7.72 mark for the first time, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The central parity rate of the yuan, also known as Renminbi (RMB), stood at 7.7199 yuan to one U.S. dollar on Thursday, gaining 39 basis points from Wednesday's reference rate of 7.7238 to the dollar.

This is the fifth time in April, or the 24th time since the beginning of the year, that the yuan has set a new record, climbing 888 basis points, from 7.8087 yuan to one U.S. dollar posted on the last trading day of 2006.

The accumulative appreciation has exceeded five percent.

But the yuan lost 94 basis points from the previous trading day to reach a central parity rate of 10.5010 yuan against one euro. And it moved down 209 basis points to reach 6.5257 yuan against 100 Japanese yen on Thursday.

(Xinhua News Agency April 19, 2007)