Asia close: Currency moves in focus across region

Japanese stocks brushed-off strength in the yen on Monday, but their Chinese peers were not quite as lucky.

Thus, the Nikkei-225 managed to eke out a gain of 0.26% to 23,714.88, even as dollar/yen fell 0.38% to 110.622.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange's Composite Index on the other hand declined 0.54% to 3,410.49 after the country's central bank raised its daily reference rate for the yuan by the most in three months.

The People's Bank of China's decision saw the onshore yuan rise by as much as 0.81% against the US dollar to 6.4138.

That followed news, on 12 January, that the country's foreign trade surplus had grown by a further 13% in 2017 to reach $291bn.

On a related note, speaking from Hong Kong on Monday, Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret told Bloomberg the central bank had decided to include the yuan in its reserves, although he declined to specify the exact amount.

Dombret also took aim at talk that the Chinese yuan was 'undervalued'.

"On the contrary, the price competitiveness of the Chinese economy is estimated to be rather low and from that perspective accusations of an undervalued RMB, they are actually not warranted," he said.

In parallel, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index broke its 14-session winning streak, dipping 0.23% to 31,338.87, having clambered past its previous record highs, reached in October 2007, at one point during the session.

Thai and Vietnamese stocks were among the session's best performers, with the SET 50 adding 1.03% to 1,187.92 and the HNX index up by 1.05% to 122.03.