As the market sentiment has shifted towards the end of this year’s trading session, emerging market currencies like the Brazilian real and the South African rand, which ranked among the top performers in currency markets, may witness a decline in 2010 versus wealthy nations’ currecies in process of economic recovery.

The Japanese currency started the week losing versus the greenback as the U.S. economy recovers, reiterating speculations that Fed stimulus may be lifted in a foreseeable future.

The South African rand continued a decline that set it to the lowest rate in almost two months as a greenback rebound is decreasing attractiveness for high-yielding emergent market currencies.

The Canadian dollar extended its last Friday advance and gained versus the euro and the Australian dollar as stocks in North America rose, evidencing the loonie’s correlation with equities and commodities markets, which also climbed today as demand for metals surged.

The U.S. dollar started this week trading near a three-month high versus the European common currency as optimism regarding the improving economic conditions in North America maintained the greenback at high levels versus most of the 6 main traded currencies.

The Australian dollar posted a significant decline this week and may extended its losses versus currencies like the U.S. and the Canadian dollar after policy makers affirmed that interest rates may not be hiked further in the short term, decreasing attractiveness for the Aussie dollar in currency markets.

The Brazilian currency posted the second straight week of losses versus the U.S. dollars and several other currencies as risk aversion was predominant in this week’s session forcing investors back to safer bets in refuge currencies like the yen and the Swiss franc.

The pound found support to trade near a one-month high level versus the euro after a report showed an improvement in the number of mortgage approvals, adding attractiveness for the sterling before the end of this week’s session.

The Swiss franc, considered a refuge currency, benefited today from a rather risk averse scenario and gained versus several currencies, declining below less than 1.50 line versus the euro for the first time since March.

The Canadian currency is ranking among the best performers today in foreign-exchange markets as the crude oil and metallic commodities rose today, favoring Canadian stocks that benefited from tensions in the Middle East region.