Yen climbs as investors consider election risk Foreign exchanges overlooked losses on global equity markets and pushed the dollar lower on Friday, leaving the yen as one of the biggest gainers as Japan awaits this weekend's upper house election result. The Japanese currency rose 0.2 per cent to Y100.30 against the dollar, having reached as high as Y100.86, as investors weighed the risk of the ruling coalition faring badly in the vote. Opinion polls suggested that the LDP/New Komeito coalition, led by President Shinzo Abe, would take enough seats to add an upper house majority to the one gained in the lower house in December's election. "If the coalition falls short of an outright majority, the immediate reaction would be yen-positive on a weakening of PM Abe's mandate," said Adam Cole at RBC Capital Markets. The Japanese currency was lower over the week, however, falling 1.4 per cent over the five trading sessions as investors willing to take on risk were rewarded. Both the euro and sterling gained against the dollar as investors pared back on the safe positions held in recent sessions. US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke finished his congressional testimony on Thursday without causing the market turmoil that had followed previous Fed statements on stimulus tapering. Although the US central bank still intends to embark on a gradual withdrawal of asset purchases later this year, Mr Bernanke was more at pains to stress that any removal of monetary stimulus would be dependent on continued economic recovery. The euro climbed 0.4 per cent over the week to $1.3121, while the pound added 1 per cent to $1.5262. Sterling's advance was underpinned by a surprise 9-0 vote from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee to keep asset purchases on hold at £375bn. Markets had expected the minutes from the MPC's July meeting to reveal, as in the previous five months, that Paul Fisher and David Miles had called for an additional £25bn. Although both thought more stimulus would be necessary, they both backed new governor Mark Carney, who will spearhead efforts to adopt forward planning measures. The pound gained 0.5 per cent to £0.8602 against the euro. The Australian dollar gained 1.8 per cent over the week to $0.9212 against its US counterpart as Chinese growth data spurred hopes of a commodity revival, while minutes from the Reserve Bank's July meeting revealed concerns about the outlook for inflation.