LONDON: The dollar slipped versus the yen at the start of a new quarter on Wednesday, as a soft reading on Japanese business sentiment dented Tokyo shares and helped bolster the safe haven yen.
The Australian dollar gained a lift from a better-than expected reading of Chinese factory activity and that added to the broadly weak tone of the greenback, traders said.
“Dollar/yen has led this move today and I think it’s basically trading off the back end of the Nikkei,” said Stephen Innes, senior trader for FX broker OANDA
in Singapore.
The dollar fell 0.5 percent to 119.56 yen JPY=, down from Tuesday’s one-week high of 120.37 yen.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei share average was last down about 1 percent .N225, as investors booked profits on the first day of Japanese financial year and after soft reading on the Bank of Japan’s tankan business sentiment survey.
