Emerging FX-Asia inches up as sentiment recovers

SINGAPORE, Mar 9 (Reuters) Most Asian currencies nudged up on Friday in a continued recovery from the heightened risk aversion and global market sell-off that knocked regional units to multi-week lows at the start of the week.

Equity markets have stabilised in the last few sessions, helping local currencies to bounce back.

The focus is now on monthly U.S. jobs numbers later in the day -- a potential test for financial markets because a weak number that renews worries about the U.S. economy could trigger a fresh round of volatility.

The South Korean won gained as much as a third of a percent to around 945 per dollar, a one-week high and comfortably above the 4-1/2-month lows hit on Monday.

The Indonesian rupiah also hit a one-week high, rising to about 9,160 per dollar -- up just over one percent from Monday's low of 9,260, which was its weakest since last July.

''The market is stepping back a bit from the fear trade, although we have U.S. data today and there will be focus on that,'' said BNP Paribas currency strategist Thio Chin Loo.

''The numbers out of Asia are good, for instance the Philippine export numbers today, so there is no need to panic.'' Philippine January exports jumped 27.3 percent from a year earlier, reversing the previous month's drop as electronic shipments rebounded.

This helped support the Philippine peso at around 48.50 per dollar, little changed from Thursday's close but up almost 0.8 percent from Monday's five-week trough of 48.89.

In Jakarta, dealers said a rebound in the rupiah beyond 9,200 per dollar suggested risk appetite was picking up a bit and that investors were moving back into local assets.

''The move started yesterday as a technical correction, but also we are seeing some players putting on short (dollar) positions again and looking at Indonesian assets,'' said one trader.

''The central bank was also there yesterday, buying the rupiah at around 9,175/80 to help reduce the market volatility.'' Analysts say that central bank intervention over the past week has helped stabilise local currency markets and tempt investors back.

The Malaysian ringgit meanwhile strengthened as far as 3.5020 per dollar, its highest in just over a week.

In contrast, the Taiwan dollar dipped as much as a fifth of percent to about 32.98 per U.S. dollar as the yen weakened.

The correlation between Asian currencies and the yen has eased in the last few months, but the low-yielding Taiwan dollar has continued to move closely with its Japanese counterpart.

Reuters SY DB0907