BENGALURU: Equities and currencies in most emerging Asian markets were on the back foot on Tuesday, with Indonesian shares leading losses ahead of a raft of data that may determine the US interest rate cut trajectory this year.
Stocks in Jakarta slipped 1% after briefly touching a fresh all-time high earlier in the day.
Bank Central Asia and Bank Mandiri lost around 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively, while utility firm Barito Renewables Energy shed more than 4%.
Shares in the Philippines and South Korea slipped 0.6%, while those in Singapore and Thailand were trading 0.5% and 0.8% higher.
An MSCI gauge of Asian emerging markets equities outside of Japan was down 0.4%.
Investors around the world are gearing up for data, including US payrolls, due on Friday.
Markets are pricing in a 69% chance of a 25 basis points cut when the Fed meets on Sept. 17-18, with a 31% probability of a 50 bps cut, CME FedWatch tool showed.
“Expectations are high for the US to cut by an outsized 50bps in at least one of the remaining 3 meetings this year,” said Jeff Ng, head of Asia Macro Strategy of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking.
“However, we think that there may be some disappointment,” Jeff added.
Currencies in the region were largely subdued, with the Philippine peso losing around 0.2%, while the baht slipped a few pips.
“Markets appeared to continue to find the right levels after previous Asia FX rally,” Jeff said.
The MSCI gauge of international emerging market currencies was a few points down as at 0741 GMT.
In Taiwan, the dollar, which is the worst performing currency in the region so far this year, lost 0.2%.
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