SHANGHAI, May 26 (Reuters) - China's major state-owned banks were seen selling dollars in onshore spot foreign exchange market from Thursday and into Friday, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Such dollar selling appeared to slow the pace of yuan declines, one of the five sources said, as big banks have not forcefully capped the currency at any particular levels.

Big banks emerged to offer dollars as "the offshore yuan was close to the 7.1 per dollar this morning," said a second source.

With such dollar selling, both the onshore and offshore yuan rebounded. The onshore yuan last traded at 7.0591 per dollar, compared with the previous close of 7.0795, while its offshore counterpart stood at 7.0730 per dollar as of 0334 GMT.

State banks usually trade on behalf of the central bank in China's foreign exchange market, but they could also trade on their own behalf. (Reporting by Shanghai and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Sam Holmes)