Yen at four-year high, Aussie to dip

Japan's currency hit a four-year high but the Australian dollar is expected to lose ground.
JAPANESE YEN: The yen hit a four-year high during the week on growing expectations about Japan's economic recovery as well as the view that the authorities may intervene but not as aggressively as in the past.
The Japanese unit stood at 104.04 to the dollar late Friday, up from 106.07 to the dollar a week earlier. It touched a four-year high of 103.44 yen Wednesday overseas.
"At the moment, there are few dollar-buying incentives while the strong Tankan results, rising local stock prices and the authorities' reluctance to intervene aggressively all support the yen," said Mitsuru Sahara, vice-president of the foreign exchange division at UFJ Holdings.
The Bank of Japan's latest quarterly Tankan survey, released Thursday, showed business confidence had improved further in the past three months, with the large manufacturers' index hitting a near seven-year high.
The dollar faces more weakness in the long term, with foreign investors likely to continue putting their funds into yen-denominated assets, mainly stocks, analysts said.
"More than four trillion yen (38.5 billion dollars) came from abroad into the Japanese stock market in the first three months of this year," said Kikuko Takeda, a foreign exchange analyst at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
"That should continue to exert downside pressure on the greenback against the yen," she said.
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR: The Australian dollar is expected to lose ground against a resurgent greenback after strong gains recently.
The currency ended the week at 76.43 US cents, more than two US cents up the previous week's 74.10 US cents.
The Australian dollar posted consecutive daily gains through the week but Macquarie Bank divisional director Geoff Bowmer said the trend could be reversed after solid US jobs figures fuelled expectations of a US rate hike.
"Markets aren't positioned for stronger US data," he said.
Bowmer said attention would also be focused on the Reserve Bank of Australia's monthly monetary policy meeting.
He said markets had already factored in no move on interest rates so, barring any surprises, the meeting was unlikely to have a major impact on the currency.
"It does look, with the exception of the UK, that monetary policy is pretty much on hold world-wide now," he said.
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR: New Zealand's dollar closed Friday worth 66.70 US cents, against the 64.55 cents close of a week earlier.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR: The US dollar was at 1.6717 Singapore dollars on Friday from 1.6905 the previous week.
INDONESIAN RUPIAH: The rupiah closed the week stronger at 8,570/8,580 to the dollar compared with the previous week's close of 8,615-8,620.
PHILIPPINE PESO: The peso strengthened to 56.275 to the dollar in late trading on Friday from 56.425 to the greenback on March 26.
SOUTH KOREAN WON: The won strengthened to 1,141.70 won per dollar Friday from 1,157.70 won a week earlier.
TAIWAN DOLLAR: The Taiwan dollar rose 1.04 percent over the week to close at 32.929 against the US dollar. The currency closed at 33.274 the previous Friday.
THAI BAHT: The baht closed Friday at 39.12-15 baht to the dollar compared to last week's close of 39.53-55.