Most Asian currencies rise as risk appetites return

Most Asian currencies recovered some of their recent losses on Friday as a retreat in US Treasury yields boosted risk appetites and pushed regional assets higher. In a sign of improved sentiment, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up about 1 percent on Friday.
A day earlier, the minutes of the Federal Reserve's January meeting dented Asian shares and currencies, on fears they might presage more aggressive US rate hikes this year. But then that sentiment started to fade, with a few analysts saying the minutes were not completely "hawkish".
"The minutes were far more balanced than the equity market sell-off suggested," said Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia-Pacific at futures brokerage OANDA. "The discussions about their inflation target being symmetric indicate that the Feds are less concerned about the updraft from inflationary pressures than current market pricing."
The 10-year US Treasury yield was last trading at 2.928 percent. It dropped to as low as 2.904 percent on Thursday after hitting a four-year high of 2.957 earlier this week. The South Korean won and the Philippine peso rose about half a percent each on Friday, with the latter set to post its first weekly gain in seven weeks.
The peso hit a 11-1/2 year low against the dollar at the start of the week, and since then traders took profits by selling dollars. The Indian rupee, which was up more than 0.25 percent on the day, was set for its worst weekly decline in five months as concerns over widening trade deficit and growing fallout from the $1.8 billion Punjab National Bank fraud.
Also, minutes from the last policy meeting of India's central bank, which showed increasing concern among members about accelerating inflation, undermined the rupee further. The Thai baht, Singapore dollar and the Indonesian rupiah were also on track to post losses for the week.
The dollar index, up 0.2 percent on the day, was on track to gain about 1 percent this week. It touched a three-year low last week. This week, the dollar has started to track the US bond yields again after moving away in the past few weeks. Some analysts said this could reinforce dollar strength and impact regional currencies in the coming days.