The yuan traded narrowly between an intraday low of 8.2772 and a high of 8.2770, Monday's closing level.

This year, China's yuan has stayed generally at the strong end of the 8.2760-to-8.2800 range, which the central People's Bank of China usually enforces.

"Within the central bank's range, the yuan remained strong due to China's healthy trade surplus," said a United States bank dealer.

Newspaper reports said yesterday China's exports rose 20.6 percent year on year to US$262.5 billion in the first 10 months of this year, with a surplus of US$24.74 billion.

The yuan's value is driven primarily by trade flows since it is fully convertible only on the current account.

Turnover, heavy at US$700 million on Monday due to China's active foreign trade, was not immediately available yesterday.

The average daily turnover on the national China Foreign Exchange System was US$485 million in October, up 15.36 per cent year on year, newspapers said yesterday.

The yuan firmed against the Japanese currency to 6.9080 versus 100 yen from Monday's 6.9154 and strengthened to 8.3500 from 8.3801 against the euro. It closed two notches higher at 1.0608 against the Hong Kong dollar from 1.0610.

Shanghai copper futures mirrored the London Metal Exchange to end higher yesterday in relatively active trade, traders said.

Shanghai contracts climbed 100 yuan (US$12) and 150 yuan (US$18), with the most active March 2004 rising 130 yuan (US$15.60) to 15,760 yuan (US$1,903) per ton. Combined volume rose to 48,114 lots from a slack 33,480 lots on Monday.

"Today's trade is moderately active," said a Shanghai trader. "The Shanghai market will continue to look for directions on the LME and it is highly possible that the domestic contracts will test higher levels in the short term."

(china.org.cn November 13, 2002)