By Gina Lee
Investing.com - The U.S dollar rose on Tuesday in Asia as Japanese investors scrambled for greenbacks on the last day of their fiscal year.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies, rose 0.12% to 99.4 by 10:54 PM ET (03:54 AM GMT).
The USD/JPY pair gained 0.61% as Japanese companies covered dollar shortages to close their books on the last day of their fiscal year.
“The talk is Japanese names are short of dollars, which is likely to keep the dollar bid well into London time,” Yukio Ishizuki, FX strategist at Daiwa Securities, told CNBC.
“We have to look beyond that and focus on what’s going on in China’s economy. Even if there is some decent data from China, I cannot be optimistic, because economic activity in many countries is grinding to a halt,” he added.
The USD/CNY pair lost 0.15% to 7.0877. China’s manufacturing Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), announced this morning, was a better-than-expected 52.0, and the yuan eased yesterday after the People’s Bank of China announced a cut in its reverse repo rate.
The GBP/USD pair slid 0.66% to 1.2334 as reverberations from Fitch Ratings downgrading Britain’s sovereign debt rating on Friday continue to impact the Sterling.
The AUD/USD pair gained 0.26% to 0.6188 and the NZD/USD pair gained 0.23% to 0.6028.