Investors have trimmed their long positions in most Asian currencies compared with two weeks ago, a Reuters poll showed, amid jitters that the European Central Bank may be getting ready to reduce its aggressive monetary stimulus. In a sign of the more cautious sentiment toward emerging Asian currencies, positioning in the Philippine peso, turned bearish, with short positions in it reaching their largest since early March.
Bullish bets in most other Asian currencies including the Chinese yuan were trimmed compared with two weeks ago, the poll of 14 analysts, traders and fund managers showed. However, investors were seen to have slightly increased their long positions in the Indonesian rupiah and the Thai baht, with baht bullish bets increasing to the biggest since April 2013.
The poll was conducted between Tuesday and Thursday. The bulk of the responses came after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi opened the door to tweaks in the bank's aggressive stimulus policy on Tuesday, fuelling market expectations that the ECB will announce a reduction of stimulus as soon as September.
The Asian currency positioning poll is focused on what analysts and fund managers believe are the current market positions in nine Asian emerging market currencies: the Chinese yuan, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, Indonesian rupiah, Taiwan dollar, Indian rupee, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht.
The poll uses estimates of net long or short positions on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long US dollars. The figures include positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).
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