The Taiwan dollar climbed more than 1 percent on Monday to hit a 10-1/2-year high after this weekend's presidential poll, but the Malaysian ringgit lost a similar amount as investors traded Asian currencies selectively. A number of markets, including Indonesia and the Philippines, reopened after holidays.
Most kept to tight ranges as investors waited for the opening of US markets later in the session. The US dollar's recovery from 13-year lows against the yen hurt some recent high-flyers, such as the Singapore dollar and ringgit. "There are a lot of local stories out there," said Thomas Harr, director of strategy at Standard Chartered Bank.
He said the Taiwan dollar led gains in the region as sentiment improved following the election, while the South Korean won continued to recover after the Federal Reserve moved to ease the US credit crunch last week. "I believe there is no clear trend over the next week. The US dollar is correcting and looks like it could continue a bit further, which will put upward pressure on the dollar/Singapore dollar, but elsewhere risk appetite remains choppy and trendless for now," Harr said.
The US dollar rose broadly, boosted by a series of Federal Reserve measures to help credit markets, including a hefty 75-basis-point cut in the fed funds rate to 2.25 percent last week. The won rose by 0.6 percent to a 10-day high of 996.9 per dollar, underpinned by a recovery in risk appetite after dollar funding problems drove the Korean currency to a 27-month low last week.
The currency also found support in President Lee Myung-bak's comments over the weekend suggesting that battling inflation took priority over the need to spur growth in the economy, which further dampened expectations of a rate cut.
The Taiwan dollar rose by 1.2 percent to 30.1850 per dollar, its highest since October 1997, given impetus by a landslide victory for the Nationalist Party in the presidential election. Investors are hopeful that the victory of Ma Ying-jeou will result in a better business environment as ties with neighbour China are expected to improve.
The Philippine peso inched up by 0.2 percent to 41.60 as remittances from overseas workers accumulated over the holiday period and pushed the currency higher against the dollar, dealers said. However, the Thai baht shed more than half a percent, hurt by what analysts said was a shortage of dollars in the domestic market. The Malaysian ringgit fell by 1 percent to a 13-day low of 3.2075 per dollar, giving up some of the 4 percent gain it made over the past two months. Analysts attributed the ringgit's fall to the weakness in the Singapore dollar.
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