The yen languished near its weakest level in nine months on Wednesday and kept traders on alert for any signs of intervention, while mounting concerns over China's sputtering economy and gloomy outlook soured the mood in Asia.
The offshore yuan struggled to break away from a nine-month low hit in the previous session, having slid to that level after a slew of Chinese data on Tuesday undershot forecasts, and prompted Beijing to deliver unexpected cuts to its key policy rates.
It was last little changed at 7.3240 per dollar .
The China gloom saw the Australian and New Zealand dollars, often used as liquid proxies for the yuan, tumbling to their lowest levels since November in early Asia trade.
The Aussie bottomed at $0.6440, while the kiwi slid to a low of $0.5939, ahead of a rate decision by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand later on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, a sliding yen also kept traders on the lookout for any intervention from Japan, with the currency having crossed the closely-watched 145 per dollar level for four sessions now, a zone which triggered heavy dollar selling by Japanese authorities in September and October of last year.
The euro was little changed at $1.0902, while sterling dipped 0.05% to $1.2696, ahead of UK inflation data due later on Wednesday.
Source : Reuters
