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Indian rupee, Philippine peso lead weekly advance

The Indian rupee and the Philippine peso led a weekly advance among Asian currencies on speculation oil prices near the lowest in seven weeks will reduce demand for dollars from importers.

The rupee posted its best week in four months as exporters may have converted overseas earnings to guard against further currency gains. A stronger rupee erodes revenue from overseas shipments in local-currency terms. Crude oil in New York declined for a third week, helping lower India’s import costs.

The rupee gained 1.2 percent this week to 42.265 per US dollar in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It may strengthen to 42.10 next week, Rao said.

The Philippine peso rose 0.9 percent from last week to 44.07 in Manila, according to Tullett Prebon PLC.

The Indian currency rallied 1.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest gain in more than a decade, on speculation the government will allow more overseas investment in the financial industry after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh survived a confidence vote in parliament the previous day.

South Korea’s won advanced this week on speculation the government bought the currency to help contain inflation.

The won has gained 3.8 percent this month, the best performance among the 16 most-active major currencies as South Korean Vice Finance Minister Kim Dong-soo said on Thursday that the government would monitor for “herd behavior” in the foreign-exchange market.

The won climbed 0.5 percent this week to 1,009.20 in Seoul, from 1,013.80 last week, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said. It dropped 0.2 percent on Friday.

Malaysia’s ringgit snapped a two-week advance as the central bank unexpectedly refrained from increasing interest rates yesterday.

The ringgit dropped 0.3 percent this week to 3.25, Bloomberg data showed.

Elsewhere, The New Taiwan dollar dropped 0.2 percent to NT$30.407 against the US currency this week, the Singapore dollar fell 0.4 percent to S$1.3588 and the Thai baht declined 0.3 percent to 33.42 per US dollar. Vietnam’s dong was unchanged at 16,795 versus a week ago.
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