A decline that sent the Kospi index of South Korean shares down 2.8 percent this week and 7.8 percent in the previous week brought prices low enough to attract investors, said Myung Gwan Byun, treasury manager at Chohung Bank in Seoul. Fund managers from abroad will probably buy Korean stocks and the currency needed to make the purchases next week, Byun said.
Money managers have piled funds into Taiwan to buy the nation's equities, said Gary Huang, a currency trader at Union Bank of Taiwan in Taipei.
In other trading this week, the Singapore dollar climbed 0.5 percent to S$1.6951, while the Thai baht was little changed at 40.03, and the Indian rupee fell 0.5 percent to 44.725.
The Indonesian rupiah fell 0.4 percent this week to 8,740, its fifth weekly drop, as investors increased sales of stocks on concern presidential elections will delay government efforts to boost economic growth.
Rising US rates would drive fund managers to shift money from Asia to dollar-denominated deposits and bonds. The Fed this week left its target borrowing rate at a 45-year low of 1 percent.
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