Investors added to their bets on the Chinese yuan and the Singapore dollar and turned bullish on the South Korean won, expecting these countries will use their currencies to contain inflation, a monthly Reuters poll showed on Friday.
Currency investors in April increased their long positions in the yuan and Singapore dollar to their highest since October 2010 and reversed their bearish views on the won and the Taiwanese dollar.
Last month, investors broadly reduced their long bets on emerging Asian currencies as a devastating earthquake and nuclear crisis in Japan dampened appetite for riskier assets.
But regional currencies have sharply rebounded in the past three weeks with the Singapore dollar hitting a record high against the US dollar. Investors have also returned to stocks and bonds in Asia.
Asian policymakers are expected to continue to tighten monetary policies and have recently allowed more currency appreciation as an additional tool to ease the blow of higher prices.
The poll asked 10 currency strategists to estimate how the currency market was positioned in eight Asian currencies against the US dollar.
The survey measures estimates of the net long or short position in a currency on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long on dollars. The figures include positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).
Comments
Comments are closed.