Asian currencies mostly down against dollar

Japanese yen : The yen has hovered around an 18-month high against the dollar in the past week as investors shunned risk amid credit market concerns and worries the US economy was losing momentum.

The Japanese currency rallied to the week's high of 109.22 to the dollar on Tuesday and stood at 110.08-11 to the dollar in Tokyo late Friday, up from 112.65-68 to the dollar a week earlier.

Thomson IFR analyst John Noonan said: "The markets remain nervous, with fears of more bad news to come from the credit markets dominating sentiment."

Commerzbank currency trader Ryohei Muramatsu saw no imminent end to a liquidity squeeze from the US subprime loan crisis. "The only solution available now is a rate cut," he said, predicting successive interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve.