Most Asian currencies weaken

Most Asian currencies pulled back on Monday as the rise of coronavirus cases in the region added to fears of a prolonged economic crisis as governments struggle to contain the disease.
The gloomy sentiment in Asian foreign exchange markets was in marked contrast to regional and global equities, which were buoyed by an apparent slowdown in the coronavirus infection rate in the major European nations.
Worryingly, the number of new coronavirus cases jumped in China while Japan prepared to enter a state of emergency to arrest the virus' spread. Singapore posted its biggest daily increase in cases on Sunday.
The Singapore dollar was little changed ahead of the third relief package announcement by its government but the Japanese yen remained under pressure against the dollar.
"The past two (Singapore) budgets had perhaps provided minimal relief in terms of sentiment for the local market concerned fundamentally with the COVID-19 situation," Jingyi Pan, market strategist at IG wrote in a note.
The Philippine peso, South Korean won and the Indonesian rupiah lost between 0.1% and 0.3%. Philippines and Indonesia reported a sizable jump in coronavirus infections over the weekend. The Malaysian ringgit weakened 0.4% and was on its way to drop for a fourth straight session as the oil exporting nation's currency was dented by a slump in crude prices. Markets in mainland China, India and Thailand were closed for a public holiday.