Most Asian currencies moved in a narrow range on Wednesday as weak crude prices gave regional importers a chance to stock up supply, although worries persisted over frail risk sentiment due to oil crash and coronavirus-led uncertainties.
Meanwhile, the relatively risk-sensitive Indonesian rupiah eased as much as 1% on worries the biggest oil producing nation in Southeast Asia would see a shortfall in crude revenue this year due to lower prices.
"This raises some concerns over the country's fiscal position, driving bond outflows and attendant softening in the rupiah," Wei-Liang Chang, a macro strategist at DBS Bank, said.
Softer prices would also deal a blow to Indonesia's recent efforts to boost earnings from the energy sector after steady decline in output and revenue contribution over the past decade.
This week has had some of the most volatile days in the history of oil trading, with prices for US crude turning negative as the coronavirus outbreak destroyed demand, while inventories swelled and storage space was hard to find.
Currencies of India, Philippines and Singapore - all net oil-importing nations - gained between 0.1% and 0.2%.
The Chinese yuan firmed 0.1%. The Malaysian ringgit weakened 0.1% to 4.395 against the dollar, a near 4-week low.
Comments
Comments are closed.