Won falls to near 14-month low

South Korea's won fell to a near 14-month low on Friday and is on track to book the third straight week of losses, leading a downturn among emerging Asian currencies as the yen held around a seven-year trough. The won slid as much as 0.5 percent to 1,102.4 per dollar, not far from a 14-month low of 1,102.9 hit on Wednesday.
The yen retreated toward a seven-year low against the dollar as investors were focused on whether Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would call an election and delay a sale tax hike. The weakening yen has caused worries about a loss of competitiveness for South Korean exports against Japan, at a time when Asia's fourth-largest economy is already slowing. South Korea's top officials have pledged to take action.
On Friday, the won came under further pressure as foreign investors unloaded a net 287.1 billion won ($261.2 million) worth of Seoul shares. Some currency traders suspected some foreigners locked in gains from a $1.1 billion initial public offering by Samsung SDS Co Ltd. "The foreign selling was seen related to Samsung SDS and the key is how much they would sell further," said a foreign bank trader in Seoul. "It is difficult to sell dollar/won as the yen/won fell below 9.5" the trader added. The won stood at 9.4709 to the yen.
South Korea's foreign exchange authorities had been spotted intervening to check the won's strength around 9.5 against the yen, traders said. On November 6, the won hit 9.4244 to the Japanese currency, its strongest since August 2008. The won has lost 0.5 percent against the dollar so far this week, underperforming other emerging Asian currencies, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Last week, the South Korean currency fell 2.3 percent, the largest weekly depreciation since late June 2013. The Singapore dollar has slid 0.4 percent on expectations that the city-state's exports in October may have contracted. Indonesia's rupiah has eased 0.3 percent. Regional currencies are likely to remain under pressure as long as the yen weakness persists, traders and analysts said.
"We will continue to follow the yen, wherever it goes," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, a senior economist and strategist for Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. "If G20 supports the JPY we may see a turnaround because EM Asian FX has already suffered a lot," he said, referring to the G20 leaders summit in Australia starting on Saturday.