South Korea Unloads Dollars to Defend Won

South Korea's foreign exchange authorities followed up on morning dollar sales to lift the won, selling a further $500 million in the afternoon on Tuesday and bringing the day's intervention to as much as $2 billion, traders said.

During the morning they sold an estimated $1 billion-$1.5 billion in a bid to check inflation in Asia's fourth-largest economy, dealers said.

The won hit a two-week high against the dollar with the reported intervention in the morning.