The domestic currency traded between a narrow 8.2770 and 8.2773 and logged a healthy turnover of US$440 million, up from US$430 million on Wednesday.

"We saw more activity today and most transactions were seen at 8.2772," said a dealer at a state-owned bank in Beijing. "Trade should be quite active through the end of the year."

December tends to be a high season for Chinese trade as exporters ship more goods abroad ahead of the Christmas and year-end holidays.

Most Chinese exporters are required to sell their hard currency earnings to banks designated to trade on the Shanghai-based national foreign exchange market, lending support to the tightly-reined yuan.

The yuan is not freely convertible on the capital account and the central People's Bank of China has said it will gradually free up the currency, but given few specifics.

Dealers expect the yuan, also supported by robust foreign exchange reserves, to hover near the strong end of its usual band of 8.2760 to 8.2800 which the central bank enforces.

Yesterday, the yuan firmed against the Japanese currency to end at 6.7605 to 100 yen from Wednesday's 6.7920.

The Chinese currency ended two notches weaker against the Hong Kong dollar at 1.0610 from 1.0608, and firmed to 8.1920 against the euro from 8.2189.

(Edited by china.org.cn November 29, 2002)