TOKYO: Asian shares got off to a shaky start on Monday as recent rallies offered traders a profit-taking opportunity, while the US dollar edged away from recent peaks in early trading.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down about 0.1 percent after touching its highest levels since September in the previous week.
Japan’s Nikkei stock average was nearly flat in early trade, after rising above the 20,000 on Friday for the first time in 15 years.
Wall Street marked solid gains for both the day and the week on Friday, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 share index reached a 15-year high and Germany’s DAX rose to a record.
A renewed drop in the euro powered the European gains, with the single currency slumping to a 3-1/2 week low on Friday. On Monday, it edged up slightly on the day to US$1.0609.
Against its Japanese counterpart, the US dollar lost 0.2 percent to 120.11 yen , though divergent monetary policy expectations were expected to bolster the greenback in the long term.
“The US Federal Reserve is in fact the only G10 central bank expected to raise interest rates in the coming 12 months, and as long as this remains the case we expect the US currency to hold its gains against lower-yielding counterparts,” David Song, currency analyst at DailyFX said in a note.
