The Australian and New Zealand dollars soared about 5 percent against the yen on Friday after the Group of Seven rich nations agreed to join in rare concerted intervention to restrain a runaway yen. The Australian dollar raced to 81.40 yen, from around 77.50 before the announcement, leaving behind a 6-month trough of 74.98 yen set on Thursday. It last stood at 81.36 yen, still down some 2 percent for the week.
The New Zealand dollar jumped more than 5 percent at one stage to as high as 59.74 yen. On the week, it was still about 2 percent lower. Both antipodean currencies performed particularly strongly, having been hammered in the last few days as leveraged players dumped higher-yielding currencies in times of market stress.
Against the US dollar, the Aussie leapt nearly two cents to $0.9944, having skidded to a three-month trough at $0.9732 on Thursday. Still, the local currency is down nearly 2 percent for the week. Australian bond futures were also lower, with three-year contract down 0.06 points at 95.04 and 10-year contract 0.03 points lower at 94.595.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.