Yen strengthens in London trade

Story link: Yen strengthens in London trade

The yen was stronger in late morning trade in London on Monday as investors once again stepped away from the purchase of high-risk investments, with the Japanese currency adding 0.5 percent versus both the US dollar and the euro, to ¥114.85 and ¥159.30 respectively, while it gained 0.8 percent to ¥81.51 in relation to the New Zealand dollar.

At the same time, sterling weakened as the UK financial sector continued to be rocked by the subprime crisis, with the pound dropping 0.5 percent to £0.6944 against the euro, falling 0.6 percent to $1.9960 in relation to the US dollar, and declining 1 percent to ¥229.25 versus the yen.

Besides troubles in the banking sector, sterling was affected by hesitation before the release of the latest Bank of England meeting minutes, new consumer price index data and new figures on retail sales, all due later in the week.

The US dollar continued to remain near record lows versus the shared currency, trading about even at $1.3870 ahead of Tuesday’s meeting of the Federal Reserve to decide what to do with US interest rates.

Both the Australian and New Zealand dollars, however, were lower in relation to their US counterpart, dropping 0.2 percent to $0.8397 and by 0.4 percent to $0.7097 respectively.