The yuan traded narrowly and touched an intraday high of 8.2771, Tuesday's closing level. Turnover fell to a moderate US$480 million from Tuesday's heavy US$690 million.

"We saw a sudden rise of importer dollar demand, pushing the yuan down slightly in relatively quiet trade," said a domestic bank dealer.

"But the minor fall today will not affect the yuan's overall strength due to China's healthy trade surplus."

This year, China's yuan has stayed generally at the firm end of the 8.2760 to 8.2800 range, which the central People's Bank of China usually enforces, supported by the country's rosy exports.

Exports increased 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, official figures showed.

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

Trade firms, in deals with domestic banks designated to trade on the foreign exchange market, can apply for hard currency using import documents.

The banks, which must sell most foreign exchange income from exports, balance positions on the Shanghai-based market.

Shanghai copper futures staged a weak technical correction yesterday after Chinese investors saw a short-lived rally on the London Metal Exchange peter out, traders said.

Almost all Shanghai contracts ended down 60 yuan (US$7.2) to 90 yuan (US$10.8), but the distant July 2003 futures dropped 160 yuan (US$19.2) to 15,890 yuan (US$1,920) per ton.

The April 2003 contract overtook March futures to become the most actively traded contract, closing down 70 yuan (US$8.4) at 15,690 yuan (US$1890) a ton.

Combined volume fell to a thin 39,542 lots from Tuesday's 48,114 lots.

(China Daily November 14, 2002)