-->vermutlich insbesondere bei BoJ, die im Mai nach Schätzungen mit ca USD 34 Mrd
versuchten das Steigen des Yen zu unterbinden


May 30 (Bloomberg) -- Japan may have sold a record amount of its own currency this month in an effort to stem an appreciation against the dollar that's threatening exports, analysts said before a Ministry of Finance report today.

The Tokyo-based ministry directed the Bank of Japan to sell as much as 4 trillion yen ($34.2 billion) in May, some analysts said, compared with none in April. The sales, which stopped the yen's rise at 115.07 to the dollar, leave the currency poised to end May at about the same level it began the month.

''They have managed to steady what would have been a sharp appreciation in the yen,'' said Lara Rhame, a currency economist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, who used to work at the U.S. Federal Reserve. Japan's ''accomplished the yen not going to 105; it'd be a lot stronger'' if not for the sales, she said.

Japan ''seems to be strongly defending the 115 yen level,'' said Koji Fukaya, chief foreign exchange analyst at Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi Ltd., Japan's third-largest bank. ''Intervention this month should be larger than any previous month.''

The yen rose to 115.07 to the dollar on May 19 before weakening to 117.48 hours later on speculation the BOJ was selling currency. Earlier the same day, the Nikkei English News reported, without citing anyone, that the central bank had spent about 2 trillion yen in the previous week to keep its currency from strengthening further than 115.

U.S. Treasuries rose last week, with yields on 10-year notes hitting a 45-year low, in part on speculation Japan has been buying government securities with the dollars it bought. Holdings of U.S. government securities by foreign central banks in the week ended May 21 rose by $18.6 billion to $733 billion, according to the Fed. It increased again in the week through May 28, reaching $740.9 billion.

''Looking at the custody data from the Fed, it suggests the BOJ could have spent more than 2.3 trillion yen in one week alone,'' said Tohru Sasaki, currency strategist in Tokyo at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and a former BOJ official. ''Estimates of 4 trillion yen for the month certainly aren't out of the question.''