Asian currencies gain

Asian currencies advanced against a weaker dollar on Friday, with the Indonesian rupiah leading gains, as US President Donald Trump's bid to re-open the economy uplifted the risk sentiment.

Rupiah, which has been pressured by an exodus of outflows since the coronavirus crisis began, firmed 1.3% to a near one-month high and was on track to log a weekly gain of 2.5%.

The currency's recent strength is due to easing investor concerns as bond inflows show signs of recovering, Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ said. Indonesia's benchmark bond yield dropped 1.6% this week, after steadily climbing since late February.

Meanwhile, hopes that the United States will roll back restrictions on businesses and reports about a potential treatment for COVID-19 gave rise to risk appetite and knocked the US dollar.

In Asia, China reported a flurry of economic data, including its first quarterly GDP contraction on record as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, which was largely within market consensus.

Growth in the mainland's March industrial production versus weak reading for the previous two months stood out and "validated the strong resumption trend in production," said Fiona Lim, senior forex strategist at Maybank, Singapore.

"The Chinese government is now focused on stimulating domestic demand and that could provide some support to regional trade and forex markets," Lim added.

The yuan firmed 0.1% to mark its best session in more than a week but was set to post its first weekly loss in four, shedding 0.6%. The Singapore dollar, the Thai baht and the Korean won - all sensitive to China's economic fortunes - strengthened between 0.3% and 0.9%.

The Indian rupee rose 0.5% as its central bank slashed the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to push banks to deploy excess funds within the system toward lending.

The Singapore dollar rose sharply to see its best day in over a week after the city-state reported a surprise 17.6% jump in March exports, helped by a surge in pharmaceutical shipments.

The export data is a closely watched indicator of Singapore's economic health and so far seems to have dodged the hit from global demand destruction caused by coronavirus, Prakash Sakpal, an economist for ING said in a note.