BENGALURU: Emerging Asian stock markets rose on Thursday, with Taiwan hitting a record high, while most currencies in the region retreated as the US dollar held firm after hawkish Federal Reserve minutes pushed back bets of rate cuts this year.
Malaysia’s ringgit retreated 0.4%, the Philippine peso fell 0.3% and Thailand’s baht slipped 0.2%.
Market participants were also cautious as China’s military started two days of “punishment” drills held in five areas around Taiwan just days after new Taiwan President Lai Ching-te took office.
Equities in China declined as much as 1.2%. Taiwan stocks rose up to 0.5%, after AI chip leader Nvidia forecast quarterly revenue above estimates on Wednesday.
MSCI’s index of Asia pacific IT stocks excluding Japan rose over 1% to hit a more than two-year high.
Stocks in Malaysia rose as much as 0.7% to touch a more than three-year high, while those in the Philippines climbed 0.3%.
Fed officials at their April 30-May 1 session indicated they still had faith that price pressures would ease, if only slowly, but the meeting minutes also reflected discussion of possible tightening.
“Outlook for Asian currencies is muted given that the Fed is set to keep rates higher for longer, but it’s less challenging now,” said Wei Liang Chang, a macro strategist (FX and credit) at DBS Bank.
“We are settling back into more rangebound environment for Asian currencies.”
In Asia, the Bank of Korea (BoK) held interest rates at a 15-year high and reiterated risks around inflationary pressures in the wake of stronger-than-expected economic growth.
“Given the increasing upside risks to inflation, the BoK’s stance will remain hawkish for some time. We maintain our view that the first rate cut is likely to come in October,” analysts at ING wrote.
Equities in South Korea advanced 0.3%, while the won was largely unchanged.
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