The Bank of Japan spent between $8 billion and $10 billion in foreign exchange markets to stem the yen's surge Friday in one of the biggest single-day interventions in recent years, dealers said.
The scale of the intervention matches a dollar-supporting intervention carried out by the BOJ after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, signaling a strong determination by Japanese monetary authorities to halt the yen's rapid rise, they said.
The BOJ conducted dollar-buying operations to the tune of $3 billion in Tokyo on Friday in its third intervention in two weeks to curb the yen's upswing against the U.S. dollar, while spending $2 billion to $3 billion in both London and New York, dealers said.
"It has a strong impact (on currency markets) that the government and the BOJ showed they are determined to intervene intermittently," one dealer said.
The BOJ conducted the latest interventions on its own without asking the British and U.S. central banks to act on its behalf, they said. The dollar leaped against the yen on the BOJ intervention. , rising as high as 124.60 yen at one point in New York, against 123 yen.95-97 at 5 p.m. Friday in Tokyo.
Dealers said the scale of the dollar-buying by the BOJ since Wednesday comes close to 2 trillion yen, making it possible the central bank's intervention in the April-June quarter will surpass a record 3.2 trillion yen in the July-September quarter last year.
The BOJ also stepped into currency markets on May 22 and 23.