Currency trading rises from Tokyo to New York on policy bumps

London

CURRENCY trading rose in the six months till April across major global centres, from Tokyo to London to New York, as investors grappled with monetary-policy whiplash, surveys from central banks showed.

In the UK, the world's largest foreign-exchange market, average daily volume rose 5 per cent from October to US$2.21 trillion, led by a 27 per cent jump in dollar-yen transactions, according to the Bank of England's Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee. The volume dropped 9 per cent from April 2015. North America's average daily volume rose to US$893 billion from US$809 billion in October, the Federal Reserve said. In Japan and Australia, total turnover, which includes spot, forwards, options and swaps, rose 5.1 and 6 per cent, respectively. Decisions from the Bank of Japan and the Fed that caught traders leaning the wrong way may have contributed to the increase, analysts said. Fewer Fed officials expect the central bank to raise interest rates more than once this year, policy makers' projections showed last month.