TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Major currencies were unmoved in midmorning after the release of Japan's third quarter GDP figures, which were largely in line with market expectations, dealers said. At 9:45 am, the yen was trading at 124.59 to the dollar, the same level seen just before the announcement, and at 111.33 against the euro, from 111.35. Third quarter GDP fell 0.5 pct from the June quarter, when the revised quarter-on-quarter fall was 1.2 pct, the Cabinet Office said. June quarter GDP was previously reported as a fall of 0.7 pct. Third quarter GDP fell an annualised 2.2 pct. Economists had forecast a third quarter decline in GDP of up to 1.0 pct over the previous quarter. However, several upgraded their estimates by as much as 0.5 percentage points after strong company investment data from the Ministry of Finance this week, leaving the actual result largely in line with expectations. Sanwa Bank vice president of foreign exchange Satoshi Tate said the currency market was unmoved by the release of Japan's third quarter GDP numbers. "The year-on-year figure was a little bit worse than expected but overall it was within the range," he said, noting that the yen had failed to gain from any short-covering after the release, as some had expected. Kenneth Landon, senior currency strategist at Deutsche Bank, said the market reaction was remarkable only in what it did not do. "Nothing happened, nothing at all," he said. "The GDP numbers came out exactly as the market expected. We saw no reaction at all in the currency market. It was basically already priced in. It was as bad as expected." Sanwa's Tate said the yen declined overnight in London trade, recovering ahead of the release of the GDP, on institutional selling. "The yen was weak as State Street and Japanese funds bought dollar towards the London fix. These people are still interested in selling yen," he said but added that the 125 yen looks well protected for now. "We see some knock out position at 125 yen, with talk that someone's protecting it. I don't know if it's true but it's understandable," he said. "Generally, it's before Christmas and the end of the year so people are quite conservative," he added.