China’s currency was on track for its third biggest gain this year on Wednesday after the country’s central bank appeared to intervene to arrest a steep decline the previous day. 

The turnround came after Chinese state banks were seen selling dollars to support the renminbi and People’s Bank of China governor Yi Gang sought to calm markets, attributing renminbi weakness to the strong dollar and “some pro-cyclical behaviour”. 

The offshore renminbi, which is not constrained by the same trading band as its onshore counterpart, was 0.7 per cent firmer against the dollar at Rmb6.6164, by mid-afternoon in Hong Kong. That reflected its biggest daily gain since March and came a day after it touched its lowest level in almost one year, according to Reuters data.