Asian currencies have biggest weekly gain since March on iInflows

NEW YORK. KAZINFORM Asian currencies had their biggest weekly gain in more than four months as an uneven recovery in the U.S. increased bets the Federal Reserve will delay raising interest rates, boosting demand for riskier assets.

Global investors pumped $1.3 billion into six Asian emerging stock markets tracked by Bloomberg this week. U.S. retail sales were little changed in July, the worst performance in six months, while jobless claims came in at 311,000 last week, higher than the 295,000 median forecast in a Bloomberg survey, Bloomberg reports. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index (ADXY), which tracks the region's 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, rose 0.4 percent this week, the most since the five days ended March 28. Malaysia's ringgit gained 1.7 percent to 3.1537 per dollar, South Korea's won advanced 1.5 percent to 1,020.93 as of Aug. 14 and the Philippine peso strengthened 1.1 percent to 43.665, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Financial markets in Korea and India were shut yesterday. "We had a confluence of supportive factors," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, a Credit Agricole CIB strategist in Hong Kong. The U.S. data reduced "fears of capital outflows from Asia back to the U.S. market." Details also at