Japan kicks off yen intervention as G7 agrees joint action

SYDNEY: Japan has bought billions of dollars to prevent the soaring yen Friday, the kickoff joint market intervention by the richest nations in the world to calm global markets made nervous by the threat of a collapse in a nuclear plant near Tokyo.
After a week of panic trading, the dollar jumped 2 yen complete as long as 81.83 yen, leaving behind a record $ 76.25 hit on Thursday as the Bank of Japan entered the market.
Vendors and media reports said he bought more than $ 25 billion. Now the likes of the U.S. Federal Reserve and European Central Bank are ready to join the action in the Group of Seven combined intervention first in a decade.
"This will have a very large resonant on the market," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT in New York.
"Because the only type of intervention that really works is coordinated response and it shows the solidarity of all central banks in terms of gravity of the situation in Japan."
index from the Japan Nikkei jumped nearly 3 percent, recovering some losses tingling of the week that Japan reeled an earthquake, tsunami and the crisis of the nuclear plant. The market losses for the week are 10 percent.
The G7 announced its intention to act jointly, after a brief conference call Friday morning in a demonstration of solidarity with the victims of Japan.
The decision came as a surprise to many because Tokyo had said he was looking for moral support in his attempts to calm the markets rather than the joint action.
The last joint intervention was ten years ago when the rich countries has to transform a sagging euro after its launch in 1999. Reuters