BENGALURU: The Indonesian rupiah was headed for its biggest weekly slide in a year on Friday as reports of the potential resignation of the country’s finance minister dampened investor sentiment.
The rupiah, which had been already under pressure amid political uncertainty ahead of the Feb. 14 presidential election, is on track for its fourth week of losses. It is down 1.3% so far for the week.
Reports that Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati could quit have weighed on the currency further and was seen as a factor prompting central bank intervention in the market earlier this week.
“Markets did not take too kindly to rumours of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani’s impending exit, since Indonesia’s fiscal prudence in recent years was credited to her astute stewardship of public finances,” said Nicholas Chia, macro strategist at Standard Chartered in Singapore.
Political uncertainty will continue to drag the rupiah lower given the “long lull between the first round of the presidential elections in February, a plausible run-off in June and the inauguration of the winner in October,” Chia added.
The rupiah was flat in afternoon trade, near a three-month low touched on Thursday. Indonesian stocks were down nearly 1% and were headed for a 1.6% fall for the week.
Other Southeast Asian currencies were largely rangebound. The Philippine peso led gains, rising 0.3%, and Thailand’s baht was 0.2% higher. Both, however, were set to log their fourth straight weekly loss.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, eked out gains of 0.3% as investors assessed the surprisingly strong US GDP data and its potential impact on the Federal Reserve’s stance on monetary policy when it meets next week.
On investors’ radar is also a key US inflation reading, due later in the day.
Among Asian stocks, shares in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur rose 0.4% and 0.3%, respectively. Those in Taipei and Manila were largely unchanged.
The support measures to help ailing markets in China, the region’s top trading partner, provided Southeast Asian equities a breather, with stocks in Shanghai reversing early losses to add over 0.5%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.4%. The index, however, was on track for a weekly gain of 1.6%.
Indian markets were closed for a public holiday.
Next week, investor focus will be on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s January policy statement, India’s interim budget and the Philippines’ fourth-quarter GDP.
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