A dealer walks past near the screens showing the foreign exchange rates at a dealing room of Hana Bank in Seoul, South Korea on Jan 26. (AP)
TOKYO, Jan 26, (AP): Asian shares mostly declined Monday, as Japan’s benchmark took a tumble after the yen surged against the US dollar. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dropped 1.8% to 52,870.15 on selling of big exporters like Toyota Motor Corp., whose shares fell 4%. A weak currency is generally favorable for Japanese exporters because it helps elevate the value of their overseas earnings. In recent months, the dollar has gained against the yen.
It fell sharply in the past few days after officials in both Japan and the U.S. indicated they were prepared to intervene to support the yen. Although finance officials did not directly confirm such intervention was in the works, they confirmed they were in close coordination with the US on currency fluctuations. “Intervention chatter did the trick.
Since Friday, the yen has staged a sharp rebound on expectations that Japanese authorities – possibly with US coordination – would step in.” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote. The dollar slipped to 154.27 Japanese yen from 155.01 yen. It had been trading around 158 yen last week. The euro fell to $1.1853 from $1.1858.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi dipped 0.7% to 4,955.79. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched down less than 0.1% to 26,735.54, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.1% to 4,141.31. Markets were closed in Australia, New Zealand, India and Indonesia. US futures edged lower on persisting uncertainty over U.S. tariff policies, among other issues.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.3%. A threat by US President Donald Trump to impose a 100% tariff on goods from Canada was countered by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Trump had warned he might hike tariffs if Canada signed a free trade deal with China. Carney said Canada had no plans for such a deal.
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