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Korean won rises to fresh 2-week high against U.S. dollar

Dec. 15, 2014 - 20:49 By Korea Herald
The South Korean won suffered a choppy session on Monday before advancing against the U.S. dollar.

The local currency finished at 1,099.10 per dollar, up 4.0 won from the previous session’s close, moving in lockstep with the yen’s rise against the greenback. The closing price marks the highest since Nov. 27 when the comparable figure was 1,098.40 won.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a landslide victory in a weekend election, which means that the Abe government may push for further monetary easing and fiscal stimulus to boost the world’s third-largest economy. Since last year, the policy of so-called Abenomics has sent stock prices higher and weakened the yen, helping Japanese exporters.

“The results of Japan’s elections have been widely anticipated, and its impact has already been priced in,” said Son Eun-jung, an analyst at Woori Futures Co. The analyst said risk-averse sentiment and a profit-taking stance on the dollar helped the yen climb.

Market watchers, however, said the yen’s decline to the dollar would resume, with the dollar-yen rate expected to settle above the 120-level soon.

“The yen’s slide will continue into next year, and may hit 125 yen per dollar,” said Hong Seok-chan, an analyst at Daishin Economic Research Institute.

The two currencies usually tend to track each other as they compete overseas.

The dollar has touched a multi-year high against the yen, aided by a series of sound data indicating recovery in the U.S. and the Bank of Japan’s surprise decision in October to jack up its stimulus measures.

Meanwhile, the won-yen exchange rate stood at 926.50 as of 3:10 p.m., up 3.17 won from the previous session’s close. (Yonhap)