TOKYO: The euro was under pressure against other major currencies in Asia on Friday as risk aversion grew on falling stock prices ahead of a G20 meeting, dealers said.
The euro changed hands at 1.2322 dollars in Tokyo morning trade, a shade lower than 1.2328 in New York late Thursday. It slipped to 110.41 yen from 110.47 yen.
The dollar was trading at 89.67 yen, hardly changed from New York.
Investors were "shunning risks as stock prices are falling," said Hideaki Inoue, dealer at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking.
The benchmark Nikkei index on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell 1.45 percent by noon after an overnight plunge on Wall Street amid worries over the US economic recovery and looming financial reform legislation.
The euro also faced selling ahead of weekend meetings of the Group of Eight and Group of 20, which are to discuss reform plans for the financial industry.
Investors are not willing to hold long euro positions as the "fundamentals of the European economies are not firm," Shinkin Asset Management senior dealer Jun Kato told Dow Jones Newswires.
China's central bank set the strongest yuan exchange rate in years on Friday, as international pressure builds for a stronger currency ahead of the G20.
The move had little impact on the dollar, which had already been sold on Beijing's announcement that it would allow greater flexibility of its currency.
"The market knows China is guiding the yuan higher toward the G20 in a bid to" stave off criticism, Inoue said.
The main topics of the gathering will likely be reforms of the financial industry, fiscal debts and how to balance reducing state debts and economic stimulus, he added.
The People's Bank of China set the central parity rate -- the centre point of the currency's allowed trading band -- at 6.7896 to the dollar, 0.3 percent stronger than Thursday's 6.8100.
China has tweaked the rate up and down this week ahead of the summit and has a history of letting the yuan strengthen slightly in the lead-up to sensitive events, apparently to defuse criticism that it keeps the currency too low.
