Dollar up after New York losses fuelled by plane tragedy

TOKYO: The dollar edged up in Asian trade Friday after tumbling in New York on news that a Malaysia Airlines jet had crashed in Ukraine killing almost 300 people, with the US saying it had been shot down.

The Malaysian ringgit slipped against the greenback in response to the tragedy, the second to hit the troubled carrier since the disappearance of flight MH370 in March.

In Tokyo afternoon trading, the dollar bought 101.32 yen, up from 101.17 yen in New York but well down from Tokyo levels around 101.50 yen Thursday.

The dollar was also buying 3.189 ringgit, after hitting 3.196 ringgit earlier in the session, against 3.175 ringgit on Thursday.

The euro slipped $1.3522, against $1.3525 in US trade, while it rose to 137.00 yen from 136.83 yen -- but was still off 137.29 yen Thursday in Asia.

Traders tend to flock to the yen in times of uncertainty, but the currency´s brief uptick following the crash was short lived.

"It´s hard to expect the (dollar-yen) pair will break below 101, once things calm down," Toshiyuki Umekawa, senior president of Mizuho Bank´s forex division, told Dow Jones Newswires. Flight MH17 had been carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it went down in strife-torn eastern Ukraine, with US officials saying it was hit by a surface-to-air missile.