Japan Conducts Forex Intervention: Sources

Tokyo, July 31 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government and the Bank of Japan carried out a yen-buying, dollar-selling market intervention for the first time in about three months on Thursday night, during New York trading hours, informed sources said Friday.

U.S. authorities also conducted a rate check, in which officials asked financial institutions about exchange rate levels.

With the Japanese and U.S. authorities coordinating to prevent further weakening of the yen, the dollar briefly plunged by about 5 yen to slip below 158 yen, hitting its lowest level since mid-May.

Market players estimate that the intervention was large in scale, at more than 5 trillion yen, based on BOJ data that includes moves on intervention funds.

When asked by reporters in Tokyo on Friday morning, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama declined to comment on whether Japanese authorities had intervened to prop up the yen. "We are working on the matter with a sense of vigilance," she said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]