EM ASIA FX-Philippine peso falls on record trade deficit, Asian FX mixed

(Adds text, updates prices)

By Aditya Soni

Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Philippine peso hit a more than

three-week low on Wednesday after the country posted a record

trade deficit, while most other Asian currencies lacked

direction as the dollar struggled to sustain its recent

recovery.

Data released eariler in the session showed that

Philippines trade deficit rose to a record of $3.78 billion in

November, puting the nation on track for its first annual

current account deficit in 15 years.

"The peso has strengthened over the last month but given

that trade deficit has continued to detoriate the focus will

shift back to the country's external position and that should

weigh on the peso," said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ

Banking Group.

Most other regional currencies lacked firm leads as the U.S.

dollar pared gains made earlier in the Asian day.

The greenback edged up earlier in the session, after

benchmark U.S. Treasury yields hit a 10-month high on Tuesday,

but the U.S. currency was 0.1 percent lower at 0513 GMT.

Goh added that he expects Asian currencies to consolidate in

the near-term as they had a strong run in December and early

part of this year.

The Korean won, which was 2017's biggest advancer

in the region, weakened 0.3 percent, in tandem with the KOSPI

stock index which fell almost quarter of a percent.

The won is on track to register a fourth consecutive day of

losses and has been falling ever since Bank of Korea said it

will respond if moves in the won get too big.

On Monday, two currency traders told Reuters the South

Korean foreign exchange authorities were suspected of buying

dollars in the market as the won strengthened to a more than

three-year intraday high.

The Taiwan dollar also softened, while the

Indonesian rupiah slipped 0.1 percent.

Conversely, the Thai baht firmed 0.2 percent, while

the Indian rupee strenghtened 0.1 percent.

CHINESE YUAN

The Chinese yuan firmed 0.1 percent, after

China's central bank lowered its official yuan midpoint

to the weakest level in nearly two weeks to 6.5207

per dollar on Wednesday.

The lower fix came as the People's Bank of China

effectively neutralised the so-called "counter-cyclical factor"

it introduced last year to help manage the yuan's daily

reference rate sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

"The counter-cyclical adjustment facility decision probably

reflected China's satisfaction that the yuan is no longer viewed

as a one-way bet, up or down," DBS said in a note.

The following table shows rates for Asian currencies against

the dollar on Wednesday.

Change on the day at 0513 GMT

Currency Latest bid Previous day Pct Move

Japan yen 112.260 112.64 +0.34

Sing dlr 1.335 1.3351 -0.02

Taiwan dlr 29.582 29.536 -0.16

Korean won 1070.000 1067.1 -0.27

Baht 32.200 32.252 +0.16

Peso 50.350 50.29 -0.12

Rupiah 13443.000 13435 -0.06

Rupee 63.675 63.71 +0.05

Ringgit 4.008 4.007 -0.02

Yuan 6.523 6.5285 +0.08

Change so far

Currency Latest bid End 2017 Pct Move

Japan yen 112.260 112.67 +0.37

Sing dlr 1.335 1.3373 +0.14

Taiwan dlr 29.582 29.848 +0.90

Korean won 1070.000 1070.50 +0.05

Baht 32.200 32.58 +1.18

Peso 50.350 49.93 -0.83

Rupiah 13443.000 13565 +0.91

Rupee 63.675 63.87 +0.31

Ringgit 4.008 4.0440 +0.90

Yuan 6.523 6.5069 -0.25

(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes)