MANILA: Most Asian currencies posted modest gains against the dollar on Tuesday as investors awaited key US events later in the week, with the South Korean won rising after four days in the red, while the Chinese yuan eased to a fresh seven-month low.
Equities in the region were mixed, with shares in Indonesia losing as much as 0.7% while those in Taiwan extended losses into a third straight session, down as much as 1.4% to touch a more than one-week low.
Stocks in Manila rose as much as 0.5%, while equities in Thailand ticked higher.
The South Korean won, which soared last week aided by the surge in chipmakers led by Nvidia, gained as much as 0.4%, while stocks in Seoul added as much as 0.6%.
The Chinese yuan dropped to a seven-month low of 7.2630 per dollar in morning trade, on track for its sixth straight monthly decline in June if the trend holds, as the country’s central bank continued to guide the official fixing weaker.
Meanwhile, investors remain cautious ahead of the first US presidential debate on Thursday and the release on Friday of the US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge.
Weak inflation data would likely reinforce market bets on a Fed rate cut as early as September, which futures currently price as a 65% prospect.
“A plethora of economic and political factors could challenge USD dominance. But categorically taming the USD will be hard,” Vishnu Varathan, chief economist for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho Bank, wrote in a note.
Malaysia’s ringgit remained unchanged after its data showed inflation for May came in slightly above the forecast.
“The MYR (Malaysian ringgit) has been exhibiting strong resilience relative to many of its regional peers in recent times,” Maybank analysts wrote in a note.
“It may continue to trade around its recent range of 4.6800 – 4.7200 in the near term.” Among other Asian currencies, the Indonesian rupiah, one of the most depreciating currencies of the year, traded flat while shares in the country declined 0.7%, eyeing their worst day in over a week. The Thai baht, Singapore dollar and Taiwanese dollar all remained largely unchanged. In the Philippines, the peso traded flat ahead of the central bank’s policy meeting on Thursday where it is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged for a sixth consecutive meeting, a Reuters poll showed. “A sell-down in tech, despite little shift in rates expectations and the outlook for earnings, may signal a trimming by investors of the quarter’s big winners.” Chinese stocks were slightly higher, with the blue chips eking out a slight gain of 0.1% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.9%.
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