Tokyo - The dollar strengthened against the yen on Friday after the Bank of Japan announced fresh measures to complement its already massive monetary easing programme.
The BoJ surprised markets with a new scheme supporting companies actively investing in the world's number three economy, stoking a brief surge in the Nikkei benchmark stock index.
Wrapping up their last meeting of the year, central bank policymakers added a new plan to boost their holdings in firms dedicated to capital investment and hiring.
But they left a vast 80 trillion yen ($654 billion) annual asset-buying programme unchanged.
Right after the BoJ announcement, the dollar strengthened to 123.13 yen from 122.56 yen before the declaration in Tokyo, and from 122.60 yen in New York late on Thursday.
The euro traded at $1.0840, down slightly from $1.0842 earlier in Tokyo trade but was still higher than $1.0824 in New York late on Thursday.
The common currency fetched 133.48 yen, up from 132.92 yen in early Tokyo trade and 132.86 yen in New York.
“It is effectively an easing,” Yunosuke Ikeda, head of Japan foreign-exchange research at Nomura Securities Company in Tokyo, told Bloomberg News, referring to the Bank's decision.
“Markets weren't expecting any tricks today so it was a surprise,” he said.
The decision came after the dollar pushed higher against other major currencies Thursday on increasingly bullish sentiment for the greenback following the US Federal Reserve's decision to lift US interest rates.
Traders said the debate about dollar “parity” with the euro was back on the front burner after the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday enacted the first US interest rate hike in nearly a decade.
AFP