China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high on Tuesday, breaking the 7.73 mark after rising for two consecutive days, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The central parity rate of the yuan, also known as Renminbi (RMB), was at 7.7277 yuan to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, gaining 29 basis points from Monday's reference rate of 7.7306 to the dollar.

This is the 14th time the yuan has set a new record since the beginning of the year, climbing 810 basis points from 7.8087 yuan to the dollar posted on the last trading day of 2006.

The yuan climbed to a central parity rate of 7.7386 yuan to the US dollar to break the 7.74 mark on March 8 this year.

The yuan gained 33 basis points to reach a central parity rate of 0.98892 yuan to the Hong Kong dollar on Tuesday.

But it was down 816 basis points against the British pound to 15.2903 yuan to the pound, and dropped 168 basis points to reach 10.3130 yuan to the euro.

And the yuan lost 86 basis points to reach a central parity rate of 0.065611 yuan to the Japanese yen, though it gained 14 basis points to reach a central parity rate of 0.065525 yuan to the Japanese yen on Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2007)