CNN – A resurgent yen hit a six-week peak against the dollar and one-month high against the euro on Friday as investors rushed to buy back the Japanese currency after a 12-month sell-off.
The weakness of the dollar against the yen and some regional Asian currencies hurt shares in exporters such as South Korean memory chip maker Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
Oil eased on the prospect of a return to milder-than-average winter weather in the United States, and gold fell below $500 an ounce to its lowest in two weeks.
“It looks like foreign investors are squaring their positions ahead of Christmas in instruments they have amassed a lot of — such as the dollar, gold and Japanese stocks,” said Masayoshi Yano, senior manager of investment information at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. Ltd.
Tokyo Nikkei’s share index closed down 0.5 percent, while MSCI’s broadest index of stocks elsewhere in Asia was 0.2 percent lower at 0635 GMT.
