By MarketWatch TOKYO (MarketWatch) - The yen sank in Tokyo Wednesday, as investors liquidated long positions on the last day of the Japanese fiscal year, with an earlier Japanese stock-market rally also greasing the low-yielding Japanese unit's slide. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average ended down 0.1%, but earlier in the session, it hit an 18-month intraday high. Investors tend to buy higher-yielding currencies when they have more appetite for risk. The dollar (CUR_USDYEN 93.4100, +0.6200, +0.6682%) bought 93.17 yen, up from 92.79 yen in late North American trading Tuesday. But against other rivals, the dollar edged lower after Tuesday's gains. The euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.3474, +0.0056, +0.4174%) rose to $1.3422 from $1.3408 late Tuesday. The British pound (CUR_GBPUSD 1.5142, +0.0072, +0.4798%) bought $1.5068, compared with $1.5064. The dollar index (DXY 81.30, -0.18, -0.22%) , which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, slipped to 81.491 from 81.513 late Tuesday. On Tuesday, the dollar rose after a report showed U.S. consumer confidence strengthened more than expected this month. The report added to evidence that the U.S. economy is recovering sooner than Europe's, which remains pressured by weakness in some euro-zone countries. See Tuesday's Currencies report.

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