TOKYO, April 11 — Hedge funds and other large speculators boosted wagers to the highest since at least 1992 that the yen will strengthen versus the dollar as Japan’s currency advanced for a seventh day.

The yen extended its winning streak to the longest since September 2012 as speculators defied rhetoric from Japanese authorities aimed at checking its advance. 

Deutsche Bank AG and Bank of Singapore Ltd said the yen remains at or below fair value. 

The currency’s surge helped send a gauge of foreign-exchange volatility toward a four-year high.

“The yen is nowhere near overvalued,” making it hard to justify intervention, said Sim Moh Siong, a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Singapore. 

“Even though the yen has moved quite substantially against the dollar, you look at yen relative to euro and other currencies it hasn’t really strengthened all that much.”

The yen appreciated 0.3 per cent to 107.70 per dollar as of 10:50am in Tokyo after advancing to 107.63, the strongest level since October 27, 2014. 

The currency gained 0.2 per cent to 122.99 per euro.

“Japan’s biggest problem with the current yen rally is that it is justified by fundamentals,” George Saravelos, a strategist at Deutsche Bank in London, wrote in a client noted dated April 11. 

The yen is “still expensive or only just approaching fair value” against the dollar on most of our metrics, he wrote. — Bloomberg