Most Asian currencies strengthened on Thursday as the dollar retreated from the five-month high it touched the previous day, with Thailand's baht gaining the most. The dollar index fell to 93.275 at 0527 GMT, down from Wednesday's five-month peak of 93.632, as the euro regained its footing at $1.1819. Khoon Goh, head of Asia research for ANZ said although markets had seen U.S bond yields surge of late, he believes "it has not really translated into a much stronger US dollar".
"I think we are just reaching a stage where after such a strong run for the US dollar...perhaps we are starting to see some profit-taking as people reassess currencies at current levels," he added.
Thailand's baht gained 0.4 percent as the central bank maintained an accommodative monetary policy stance, keeping its key interest rate at a near-record low.
The widely expected policy rate decision kept the one-day repurchase rate at 1.5 percent, the level it has been for more than three years as the central bank works to support growth.
The Singapore dollar was little changed after news that non-oil exports rose sharply in April, surpassing expectations.
South Korea's won slipped to 1079.6 per dollar, on track to extend its losses for a third session.
Comments from the South Korean central bank chief weighed on the won after he called the economy's strength into question following weak jobs growth data on Wednesday.
The central bank also announced it would foster greater transparency on its foreign exchange dealings in second-half 2018 after South Korea was labelled a currency manipulator by the United States.
The Indonesian rupiah recovered from Wednesday's more than two-and-a-half year low, but remained around the 14,000 mark against the dollar ahead of the central bank meeting later in the day.
BI is widely expected to raise rates for the first time since 2014 to support the rupiah, which has suffered from slowing economic growth and the strong dollar.
"If it's purely a rate hike and no other measures are announced, it could be likely then that the market will then look for BI to potentially to deliver more rate hikes," Goh said.
"How the currency responds to any moves today will be quite telling and its important to see whether or not BI will have to do more."
The rupiah has been among the worst-performing currencies in the region, falling 3.5 percent this year.
Malaysia's ringgit, which has come under ever-closer scrutiny in the past week because of the general election there, edged lower after news that the economy had slowed in the first quarter.
The pressure is on the new government to turn around the economy with changes to economic and fiscal policy.
The new administration, led by Mahathir Mohamad, said it will introduce a sales and service tax to partially offset the shortfall in revenue caused by its decision to scrap a goods and service tax from June.
"Until we get more concrete policies on that front, I think the ringgit will continue to trade quite cautiously," said Goh.
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