Asian forex: South Korean won gains most; other subdued

The South Korean won gained the most among Asian currencies on Friday, buoyed by the positive developments surrounding the "phase one" trade deal, while most other units remained subdued amid lack of market triggers ahead of the holiday season.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday the United States and China would sign their so-called "Phase one" trade pact at the beginning of January, adding that it was completely finished and just undergoing a technical "scrub."

The South Korean won strengthened 0.4% and was set to post a weekly gain of about 0.9%.

The trade-reliant economy has been heavily bruised by the prolonged trade war.

However, the sentiment wasn't carried across the other currencies in the region, with many nearly unchanged.

"Market activity across Asia is set to thin out from now to year-end, considering the scarcity of market catalysts over the coming weeks.

However, the US-China "phase one" deal is likely to keep risk appetite intact going into 2020," said Han Tan, a market analyst at FXTM.

Meanwhile, the Philippine peso weakened up to 0.4% to see its worst session in nearly three weeks.

"It's the continuation of the foreign outflows from the Philippines equity markets all week that is putting pressure on PHP," said Mahesh Sethuraman, deputy head of global sales trading at Saxo Capital Markets.

The country's benchmark stock index dropped as much as 2.4% to its lowest in near one year.

The Indian rupee weakened 0.2% after the central bank said on Thursday that it would conduct simultaneous sale and purchase of bonds which is widely seen by market players as a bid to bring longer-term bond yields lower.

For the week, the rupee weakened 0.5%, its biggest weekly loss in over a month.

The Indonesian rupiah slipped marginally.

The central bank on Thursday left its key interest rate unchanged but maintained a dovish stance expecting further easing next year to support its slowing economic growth.

Elsewhere, Taiwan's central bank raised its growth forecast for the economy on Thursday, which has been benefiting from the relocation of manufacturers from the mainland to the island in an attempt to evade rising trade tariffs.

This helped the Taiwan dollar which firmed 0.1%.