Ammon News - Japan stands ready to take all possible measures to counter excessively volatile currency moves, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Tuesday, keeping markets on alert over the chance of renewed intervention to prop up the yen.

"It is important for currency rates to move stably reflecting fundamentals. Excessive volatility is undesirable," Hayashi told a regular news conference.

"We will closely watch exchange-rate developments and stand ready to take all possible measures," he said.

Hayashi declined to comment when asked whether Tokyo intervened in the currency market to prop up the yen for two straight days last week.

Traders suspect Tokyo intervened in the market to lift a currency that has languished at 38-year lows, once on Thursday after cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation report triggered a jump in the yen, and again on Friday.

Bank of Japan data suggested Japan may have spent up to 3.57 trillion yen ($22.51 billion) intervening on Thursday last week. Markets will be eyeing the release of money market data later on Tuesday, to gauge if Tokyo stepped in last Friday as well.

The yen jumped 3% against the dollar to 157.40 after Thursday's suspected intervention.

But it lost most of its ground and stood at 158.62 on Tuesday, not far off the 160 mark seen as Japanese authorities' line-in-the-sand for currency intervention.

Reuters