Several Asian currencies fell to one-month lows on Monday as grim global economic outlook prompted investors to shun risks and sell regional stocks. The volatile won fell as low as 1,365.9 per dollar, down almost 1.7 percent from Friday's domestic close to its weakest level since December 16.
The won remains the worst performer among nine emerging Asian currencies tracked by Reuters, losing 7 percent versus the dollar so far this month after a 25 percent slide last year. The Malaysian ringgit lost as much as 1 percent to 3.5735 per dollar, its weakest in a month.
"We can test 3.58 this week on the firmer dollar sentiment against Asian currencies except the yen," said a trader in Kuala Lumpur. The ringgit in three-months offshore non-deliverable forwards fell to 3.6050 per dollar on Monday, implying a fall of about 1 percent from the spot rate.
The Singapore dollar also lost nearly 0.4 percent to a one-month low of 1.4895 per US dollar. But the Japanese yen briefly rose to the stronger side of 90 per dollar as investors rushed back into safe-haven currencies following to Friday's dismal US payrolls report, which showed 1.1 million jobs lost since November and the highest unemployment rate since 1993.
"It looks like Asian currencies have been mostly affected by equity-related weakness," said Enrico Tanuwidjaja, currency strategist at OCBC Bank. The MSCI index of stocks in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan fell 2.6 percent, down for a fourth day after a rally that lifted the gauge to a one-month high fizzled last week.
The Indonesian rupiah fell about 0.9 percent to 11,100 per dollar, extending a drop seen on Friday as local corporate demand for the dollar increases. Some traders expect it to move between 11,050 to 11,200 for the day. "We still see a lot of persistent dollar demand from local corporates. So at the moment I think the dollar/rupiah would remain slightly biddish," said a trader in Jakarta.
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