Emerging FX-Asia gains on dollar weakness, inflows

SINGAPORE, Dec 1 (Reuters) Most Asian currencies extended gains versus the US dollar today as sustained capital inflows offset concerns about central bank intervention, and helped by the dollar's global weakness.

Underscoring solid fundamentals buoying most regional currencies, South Korea said today the country's exports in November grew a faster-than-expected 19.8 percent to a monthly record from a year earlier, maintaining surprising strength.

The dollar hovered near a 14-year low against the pound on Friday and a 20-month low versus the euro as the U.S. currency suffered from expectations a weakening economy will prompt the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates next year.

The yen briefly dipped against the dollar after data showed the rise in Japanese core consumer prices unexpectedly slowed in October to just 0.1 percent from a year ago, raising more doubts about how quickly the Bank of Japan can lift rates.

''Looking ahead, renewed interests for short dollar positions should place dollar/Asia on track to end this week with another decline,'' currency strategists Claudio Piron and Yen Ping Ho at JPMorgan wrote in a research note.

''Notably, the mix of heightened financial market volatility and more dovish central banks appear to be keeping the higher yielding dollar/peso and dollar/rupiah supported, with signs of BSP (Philippine central bank) resistance also evidently leaning against peso gains,'' they said.

Thio Chin Loo, senior currency analyst at BNP Paribas, said she remained bullish about the underlying strength of most Asian currencies as money continued to flow into the region's equity markets, with the latest gains helped by dollar weakness.

The South Korean won underpinned by third-quarter gross domestic product data that was revised upward, was traded at 928 per dollar at 0220 GMT, gaining moderately but still off a nine-year high this week of 925.

The Taiwan dollar firmed as high as 32.25 per U.S. dollar, hitting its highest level in about 4-{ months.

The Thai baht strengthened as far as 35.82 against the dollar in early trade, gaining about half a percent to its strongest level in almost eight years.

The Singapore dollar briefly hit 1.5372 against the U.S. dollar, matching a nine-year high set on Thursday, before retreating to 1.5440.

Renewed strength in most Asian currencies in recent weeks has triggered a wave of verbal and actual intervention by regional central banks to cap further currency appreciation amid concerns about a slowdown in the U.S. economy.

Traders suspected the Bank of Korea bought about a billion dollars on Wednesday to stop the currency from appreciating while they said the Bank of Thailand (BOT) has been intervening both verbally and through actual dollar buying this week.

REUTERS SY ND0926