The Australian currency finished lower on profit-taking after Japan did not step in a second time to weaken the yen against the greenback.

At 5pm AEST Thursday, the domestic dollar was changing hands at 93.55 US cents, slightly down from yesterday's finish of 93.73 cents.

Rochford Capital senior consultant FX advisory services Derek Mumford said ''There's been a reasonable sell-off today.''.

''It's a reaction to profit-taking after the intervention from the Bank of Japan.

''It has caused some doubts about the stability of the Aussie in the short term.''

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday intervened in to sell the yen in an effort to restrain its export-sapping strength, and helped lift the dollar 2 per cent to 79.62 yen.

The surprise intervention was aimed at dragging the ailing US dollar up from a 15-year low of 82.87 yen and proved enough to lift it to 84.85 late in the session.

Mr Mumford said sentiment for the Aussie was affected by a private sector survey showing rising inflationary expectations, and an underperforming share market.

After four monthly declines, the median expected inflation rate jumped to 3.1 per cent in September, from 2.8 per cent in August, according to the Melbourne Institute Survey of Consumer Inflationary Expectations.

''That took some of the shine off of the market, Mr Mumford said.