Key Asian stocks ended mixed today. Japan’s Nikkei-225 gained 1.23 percent, Singapore’s Straits Times index jumped 0.32 percent, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.17 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index soared 0.09 percent. Whereas China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.26 percent.
Major European markets were trading mixed today. London’s FTSE was 0.49 percent up. On the other hand, Germany’s DAX was 0.34 lower and France’s CAC was 0.10 percent lower when reports last came in.
Japan likely spent some 5 trillion yen ($32 billion) on Monday in currency market intervention, data by its central bank and market sources showed Tuesday, in the clearest evidence yet of the nation’s attempt to slow the yen’s rapid fall.
The government has not confirmed that it intervened after the yen on Monday tumbled versus the U.S. dollar beyond the 160 line, a 34-year low, and then jumped to the 154 zone in a short span of time.
The suspected yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention could have been close to the 5.62 trillion yen Japan spent in its foray into the market on Oct. 21, 2022, the biggest ever single-day intervention. Japan conducted three interventions in 2022 totaling nearly 9.2 trillion yen.