Sterling was firmer on the yen on Friday, with the Japanese currency under broad pressure after the Bank of England intervened in the forex market as part of the co-ordinated Group of Seven effort to stem its recent surge. The British pound rose to 132.30 yen from around 131.60 just after 0800 GMT when the intervention started. But it gave up most of those gains to trade at 131.70, although it was still up more than 4 yen on the day, or over 3 percent.
The last joint intervention was a decade ago when the G7 rich nations moved to turn a slumping euro following its 1999 launch. Friday's co-ordinated intervention came after Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan agreed with central banks of the United States, Britain and Canada as well as the European Central Bank to jointly intervene in the currency market.
Sterling also recouped some of its earlier losses against the dollar and the euro, having come under pressure on dovish comments from a Bank of England policymaker and data showing a drop in consumer confidence. The pound was up 0.2 percent on the day at $1.6180 following a brief dip to $1.6059, with sell-stop orders tripped below $1.6100, traders said. Euro/sterling was up 0.6 percent at 87.41, but off a high of 87.59 pence, its highest level since November 4.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.