TOKYO: The dollar was broadly lower against emerging market currencies in Asian trade on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve's surprise decision to keep its aggressive stimulus programme intact.
From the Indian rupee to the Philippine peso, the Fed news boosted higher-yielding, riskier currencies in emerging markets. The rally came after they suffered heavy selling in August as foreign investors fled to the United States expecting interest rates there to rise.
The rupee has been plumbing all-time record lows as fears surged that a Fed pullback would send waves of capital flowing out of the region.
"Risk assets are set to stage a strong comeback after the Fed surprisingly left its asset purchase size unchanged," Credit Agricole said.
"Asian currencies should strengthen, on the back of the weak dollar, and the reduced worries over capital outflows."
In other trading, the dollar edged up against the yen after treading water against the Japanese unit in morning deals.
The greenback fetched 98.32 yen, up from 98.13 yen in New York on Wednesday. It was at 99.19 in Tokyo before the Fed announcement.
The euro bought $1.3532 against $1.3511 in US trading, hovering around its highest level on the dollar since February and well up from $1.3353 on Wednesday.
The European currency strengthened to 133.06 yen from 132.55 yen.
Investors had expected the US central bank to begin cutting its $85 billion per month bond-buying programme following broadly upbeat data on the world's number one economy.
However, the bank instead lowered its growth forecast for 2013 and 2014, while its chairman Ben Bernanke warned of possibly "very serious consequences" from a brewing political battle in Washington over a new budget and the debt ceiling.
Bernanke said the Fed could still taper its quantitative easing programme later this year if the outlook improves.
The decision will have raised some eyebrows in markets, National Australia Bank said in a note Thursday.
"For the Fed, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that it has completely messed up its communication policy. We are now back to watching the incoming data," it said.
"And crucially there is only one (jobs data) release before the next (policy) meeting on October 29-30."
In other trading, the dollar tumbled to 61.67 Indian rupees from 63.17 Indian rupees on Wednesday, while it slipped to 11,092 Indonesian rupiah from 11,290 rupiah, although the greenback is still sitting around four-year highs.
The dollar weakened to 1,070 South Korean won from 1,082 won, to 31.01 Thai baht from 31.26 baht, to Sg$1.2445 from Sg$1.2600, to 43.10 Philippine pesos from 43.55 pesos and to Tw$29.45 from Tw$29.65.
The Australian dollar strengthened to 94.91 US cents from 93.52 cents, while the Chinese yuan fell to 16.05 yen from 16.21 yen.
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