Taiwan dollar at one-week high

The Taiwan dollar jumped to a one-week high on Friday on stop-loss selling of the US dollar and tracking gains in the South Korean won. The Taiwan dollar firmed 0.6 percent to as high as T$34.732 to the US dollar in late trade, before erasing some gains to end at T$34.780, still stronger than the previous sessions T$34.945.
Both the intraday high and close on Friday were the strongest levels since February 25. Dealers said the central bank tried to buy some US dollars to stem the Taiwan currencys gains, though it was not particularly active. Volume on the main Taipei Forex Inc exchange was heavy at $1.49 billion, higher than $1.081 billion a day earlier.
"There was a lot of stop-loss selling in the US dollar at around T$34.8. The Taiwan dollar was also tracking the wons rise," said a dealer in Taipei. "The central bank tried to curb the gains, but its hard for it to go against the overall trend in Asia," the dealer said.
The Korean won rose from an 11-year low due to exporters deals and traded higher at 1,550, compared with Thursdays domestic close of 1,568.0. But dealers said they were awaiting more data to better gauge the direction of the Taiwan dollar. The United States is due to announce jobs data, while Taiwan will release trade data on Monday.
Economists expect the United States lost 648,000 jobs in February after 598,000 workers were cut in January, with the unemployment rate seen surging to a 25-year high of 7.9 percent from 7.6 percent the previous month.
In Taiwan, a Reuters poll showed that exports in February likely fell 25.2 percent from a year earlier, their sixth straight drop as consumers slash spending amid the global downturn, possibly pushing the island deeper into recession.
In the non-deliverable forwards market, six-month NDFs were quoted at -0.160/-0.110, compared with -0.060/-0.010 on Thursday, meaning that the Taiwan dollar should firm more than previous expectations. On the smaller Cosmos exchange, the Taiwan dollar strengthened to T$34.749 to the US dollar from the previous ending price of T$35.052.