Most Asian currencies strengthened this week, with the Thai baht climbing to a five-month high, as upbeat US economic data and monetary easing in China spurred demand for riskier assets.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia dollar index, which tracks the region's 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, rose 0.1 per cent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index of shares climbed to a 6-month high. Demand for higher-yielding assets was also buoyed by European leaders' approval of a second bailout for Greece on February 21. Chinese banks' reserve requirements were relaxed today for the second time in three months.
Malaysia's ringgit climbed 0.7 per cent to 3.0150 and the rupee gained 0.3 per cent to 49.13. China's yuan strengthened 0.02 per cent to 6.2978. Stock markets in South Korea, India and the Philippines attracted $1.2 billion from overseas this week, according to latest exchange data.