The Indonesian rupiah led gains in emerging Asian currencies on Monday, underpinned by suspected inflows into Indonesian bonds, while weak oil prices dented the Malaysian ringgit. The rupiah, the second-worst performing emerging Asian currency this year, has gained some respite after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates last Wednesday and signalled that further tightening would be gradual.
On Monday, the rupiah climbed about 1.3 percent to 13,740 versus the dollar, pulling away from a two-month low of 14,090 set on December 14. A currency trader based in Indonesia said the rupiah was benefiting from "lower uncertainty after the Fed decision" and added that its latest rise may be due to some inflows of overseas investor funds into Indonesian bonds.
Other traders said the rupiah's gains picked up momentum due to stop-loss buying, as well as dollar-selling in non-deliverable forwards. The rupiah's gains came on a day when most emerging Asian currencies edged higher against the dollar, after US bond yields fell late last week. The Malaysian ringgit underperformed its peers and eased 0.2 percent against the dollar, weighed down by falls in oil prices that underscored concerns over Malaysia's falling oil and gas revenue. Brent crude oil prices touched their lowest levels since 2004 on renewed worries over a global oil glut.
SOUTH KOREA WON The won edged higher against the dollar after Moody's Investors Service on Saturday said it had upgraded South Korea's issuer and bond ratings to Aa2 from Aa3, the highest ever for the country.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR The Singapore dollar's resilience could be tested by a couple of domestic data releases this week, namely the November consumer price index (CPI) and core CPI on Wednesday, followed by industrial production on Thursday.
Any market reaction to the data will probably be in the direction of US dollar strength against the Singapore dollar, said Vishnu Varathan, senior economist for Mizuho Bank in Singapore.
"Any reaction should be biased to the (US dollar's) upside rather than to the downside, because inflation is probably not going to pick up in a big way just yet," Varathan said. Even if industrial production were to come in slightly better than expected, that is unlikely to dispel concerns about weakness in Singapore's non-oil domestic exports, he added. As inflation has come down and economic growth has been sluggish, Singapore's central bank has eased monetary policy twice this year, most recently in October.
Comments
Comments are closed.