The yuan closed virtually flat on Thursday as traders watched global currency markets and waited to find out if the US can steer away from going over the "fiscal cliff". The yuan closed at 6.2302 per dollar, compared with 6.2303 at the end of Wednesday.

The central bank set its midpoint at 6.2877 per dollar compared to 6.2865 on Wednesday. The exchange rate is only allowed to diverge by 1 percent in either direction from the central bank's daily midpoint. Market volumes remained healthy with more than $11 billion transacted by market close, down slightly from Wednesday.

Copyright Reuters, 2012