Despite end-of-year holidays shortening the trading week, major Asian currencies made fresh gains on the ailing US dollar.
JAPANESE YEN: The yen gained ground during the week against the dollar as the US unit remained under pressure on concerns over the US current account and budget deficits, dealers in Tokyo and Singapore said.
The Japanese currency was quoted at 106.90 late Friday against the dollar in Singapore, compared with 107.04 yen in Tokyo a week earlier in the holiday season trade.
The Tokyo foreign exchange trading closed for the New Year's holidays from Wednesday to Friday and will restart on Monday.
"The reasons are not new. As seen from the US current account and fiscal fronts, the deficits are not narrowing ... so market players now prefer to diversify to European and Asian currencies," said Thio Chin Loo, a currency strategist with BNP Paribas in Singapore.
"We believe the US dollar's weakness is likely to extend for a third year into 2004. The risk ahead is the magnitude of the fall, which the market is at risk of underestimating," DBS Bank in Singapore said.
Additional pressure against the dollar came from lingering concerns over terrorist attacks against US targets, said Shigetake Nakayama, dealer at UFJ Holdings.
Investors believe, however, the Japanese currency would not gain much further, due to expectations that Japanese monetary authorities would intervene to stem a sharp rise in the yen against the dollar.
A strong yen hurts Japanese exporters by making their goods less price competitive.
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR: The Australian dollar is expected to maintain its strength in the first week of trade for the new year, currency strategists said, after finishing 2003 as the world's strongest performing currency.
In a shortened trading week due to the New Year's Day holiday, the Australian dollar ended the week at 75.23 US cents, more than a cent higher than the previous week's 73.98 US cents.
The currency surged to a fresh six-year of 75.39 in overnight trade Friday, building on healthy gains throughout the week.
The local unit gained 33 percent against the greenback in the past 12 months, making it the strongest performer on global currency markets ahead of the South African rand and the New Zealand dollar.
It was supported by a resilient and expanding domestic economy, higher commodity prices and a falling US dollar.
The bulk of currency strategists, including Westpac and the National Australia bank, expect the Aussie to climb to around 80 US cents before tailing off as a cooling housing sector halts rapid growth in the domestic economy and as the global economic recovery gains momentum.
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR: New Zealand's unit closed at a six year high of 65.62 US cents up sharply from 64.63 cents a week earlier.
A Bank of New Zealand currency spokesman said the weakness in the greenback had spurred the kiwi to fresh levels.
"In a yearly context I would say the kiwi is one of the top performing currencies," he said.
The kiwi dollar strengthened 25 percent in the year after opening at 52.24 cents.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR: The US dollar was at 1.7002 Singapore dollars on Friday from 1.7031 the previous week.
HONG KONG DOLLAR: The US-dollar pegged Hong Kong dollar slipped from 7.7659 a week earlier to 7.7629.
INDONESIAN RUPIAH: The rupiah closed the shortened trading week at 8,448-8,455 to the dollar compared to the previous week's close of 8,495-8,500.
PHILIPPINE PESO: The peso recovered slightly to 55.50 to the dollar in late trading on December 30 ahead of a long New Year's weekend compared to 55.59 to the dollar on December 23, the last trading day of the previous week.
SOUTH KOREAN WON: The won rebounded to 1,195.0 won Friday from 1,200 won per dollar a week earlier as the greenback was under pressure world-wide on worries about the US current account deficit.
TAIWAN DOLLAR: The Taiwan dollar rose 0.2 percent over the week to finish at 33.976 against the greenback Friday. The currency finished at 34.052 the previous Friday.
THAI BAHT: The Thai unit was bolstered slightly by exporters selling the dollar ahead of new year holidays and positive investor sentiment on the baht in anticipation of strong economic performance in 2004.
The baht closed Wednesday at 39.60-70 baht to one dollar compared to last week's close of 39.56-58.
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