The South Korean won and the Singapore dollar eased as interbank speculators added dollar positions following a lack of progress in talks over common eurozone bonds and after the Swiss central bank refrained from steps such as pegging, pushing down the euro.
Earlier, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) said it would broaden existing measures to counter a runaway Swiss franc by expanding bank deposits and that it would take further measures against the currrency's strength if necessary The won slid but then recovered much of its losses as exporters bought it for settlements and speculators dumped dollar positions to stop losses.
Exporters continued to show buying interest for the won especially around mid-1,070s per dollar, dealers said. The Singapore dollar eased, but the city-state currency is seen testing its record high of 1.1993 against the US dollar. The Singapore dollar weakened to as soft as 1.2050 versus the greenback, the last high of US dollar/Singapore dollar on hourly chart, once when the euro extended falls with the SNB's announcement.
But the city-state currency's weakness was capped at that level. A break above 1.2090, the US dollar/Singapore dollar's low of August 11, would be a sign of short-term stabilisation. Still, investors remain cautious over possible intervention by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to defend the 1.2000 level. On Tuesday, the central bank was spotted in the market to keep the pair above the line, dealers said. Meanwhile, the constant pressure being applied by Singapore dollar/ringgit cross on global financial crisis highs around 2.4800 could be a source of worry for the MAS. Resistance above this is at 2.5000-2.5050, which was tested during the turbulence last week.
Comments
Comments are closed.