Asian currencies largely rose on the back of China's announcement Thursday that it had revalued its currency and scrapped the yuan's decade-old peg to the dollar in favour of a managed float against a basket of currencies.

The yen rallied to three-week highs against the dollar after China announced in midweek it was revaluing its currency.

But it eased off toward the weekend as the market began to look beyond China's sudden but cautious monetary action.

The Japanese currency stood at 110.83-85 to the dollar late Friday, up from 111.78-81 to the dollar a week earlier.

It shot up to 109 levels after China announced on Thursday it was revaluing the yuan by some two per cent-smaller than what the market expected-and dropping the dollar peg in favour of a forex regime tied to a basket of currencies.

The rally reversed the yen's plunge on Wednesday to 113.19 to the dollar, its lowest level in 14 months.

Japanese Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Heizo Takenaka said Friday that the effects of the revaluation would be felt in Japan only in the mid to long-term.

Japan had backed US-led pressure on China for a bigger revaluation, arguing that Chinese exports were artificially cheap because its currency was undervalued. China is Japan's biggest trading partner.