04:36 AM EDT, 05/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Japanese yen fell against all major currencies in early European trade on Monday while the Australian dollar outperformed following a robust performance from risk assets in the Asian trading session.

USD/JPY was the biggest mover among major currency pairs, rising 0.58% in Asia to be quoted around 153.72 following the European open. Public holidays in Japan and the UK, two of the biggest FX trading jurisdictions, could keep overall activity light throughout the coming session.

The holiday meant there was no economic data released in Japan but the yen remained close to the three-week high of 151.87 seen following last week's suspected interventions by the Ministry of Finance.

"The wide yield gap between the US and Japan and healthy risk appetite remains a strong support for USD/JPY," said Kristina Clifton, a currency strategist and economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

The Japanese yen remained the best performing major currency of the recent week on Monday owing to the scale of the prior interventions, which pulled USD/JPY down from 160.21 last Monday. However, the AUD/USD claimed the top spot among major currencies on Monday after it rose 0.24% to be quoted at 0.6625.

AUD/USD's gains led the Ausssie to outperform all other major currencies and came against a backdrop of rising stock markets across Asia and higher government bond yields in Australia where the ANZ Job Advertisements barometer rose 2.8% for April. Market attention, however, is likely to be fixed on Tuesday's Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate decision.

CBA's Clifton expects the RBA to hold the cash rate at 4.35% and keep its neutral bias tomorrow. "The risk to our view is the RBA reinstalls a tightening bias," she said.

Elsewhere among major currencies GBP/USD was quoted 0.21% higher at 1.2572, making sterling the second best performer in the G10 basket, while China's renminbi featured as the second-worst performing currency in the G20 grouping after USD/CNH rose 0.39% to 7.2165 despite an uptick in the Caixin Composite PMI to 52.8 from 52.7 previously.