The Thai baht and the Philippines Peso led gains among rising Asian currencies on Thursday, with the baht appreciating to nearly a five-month high on surging gold prices, while the peso climbed ahead of a central bank meet.
The Malaysian ringgit, Taiwan dollar and the South Korean won firmed in the range of 0.1% and 0.3%.
The US Federal Reserve said on Tuesday that while it will begin raising interest rates to combat inflation, it will decide the pace of hiking at each meeting, thereby driving investors to riskier assets even as tensions between Russia and Ukraine still proved to be a pain point.
The Thai currency rose for the third consecutive session, up about 0.4%, to touch its highest since September, helped by higher gold prices after geopolitical tension between Russia and Ukraine showed no signs of abating. The baht has been the best performing currency for the year, rebounding from a dismal performance in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Philippines peso rose more than 0.2% to mark its best session in more than a week, ahead of a central bank meeting later in the day which is expected to maintain record low interest rates.
"While the current USD/PHP currency pair is manageable with the central bank 'smoothing' policy, any abrupt erosion to real policy rate differentials versus the Fed will lead greater depreciation of the peso," analysts from Mizuho Bank said in a research note.
Thai baht scales five-month high on capital inflows, most Asian fx mixed
Among Asian equities, the South Korean benchmark led, gaining for the second straight session, up as much as 1.5% to hit its highest in a week.
Shares in Singapore rose for the third day running, up more than 0.4%, as the island-nation reported fourth quarter GDP higher than the government's advance estimate and maintained its growth forecast for 2022, while also flagging downside risks to growth. The local dollar rose marginally.
"While our official 5.5% forecast for 2022 still implies lower full-year growth in 2022, forecast represents a solid economic recovery, as the strength of 2021 GDP growth was exaggerated by the outsized base effects arising from the initial impact of the pandemic in 2020," analysts from Barclays said in a note.
Other equity markets including the Malaysian benchmark , Thailand and Chinese equities rose in the range of 0.3% and 0.9%.
Both Indonesian shares and the rupiah lagged, falling about 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.
The nation's finance ministry told a G20 summit that while the global economic recovery was on track, there were still risks related to inflation, supply chain disruption and growing geopolitical tensions.
Highlights
** Indonesia govt sets 5.3%-5.9% GDP growth forecast for 2023
** Indonesia 10-year bond yields inch up to 6.510%
** Top gainers in South Korea benchmark include Samsung Electronics and peer SK Hynix which rose 0.67% and 1.53% respectively
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