Yen pushes below ¥113 mark to strongest level in more than a week

With the greenback stuck in the doldrums, Japan’s yen has shaken off some of its recent weakness to reach its strongest level in nine days.

The yen pushed as much as 0.4 per cent higher in early Asia trade to ¥112.71 per dollar, the firmest level since May 8.

Japan’s currency had weakened to as much as ¥114.37 as recently as Wednesday, the softest level since mid-March.

That had been a boon for Japanese equities, with Nikkei 225 index this week coming within sight of the 20,000-point mark for the first time in two years.