Asian currencies rebounded on Friday as a fresh US capital injection into Bank of America buoyed investors' appetite for risky assets, but analysts remained cautious given the gloomy global economic outlook. Leading the pack was a nearly 3 percent jump in the South Korean won to 1,351.8 per dollar, which was also buoyed by exporters and investors reducing their existing dollar postions.
The Indonesian rupiah rose as far as 11,150 per dollar, up half of a percent from Thursday's close, as traders cited some foreign money flowing into local markets. But traders said the rupiah faced resistance near 11,000.
"I think the dollar/rupiah will be supported at 11,100 and there is a chance to go higher in the coming weeks," said a trader in Jarkata. Asian stocks extended their earlier gains after the US government pumped $20 billion into Bank of America, the latest intervention to prop up the battered financial sector.
The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 2.4 percent. But Callum Henderson, chief global currency strategist at Standard Charted Bank, saw further weakness in Asian currencies before an expected a recovery in the second half. "Asian currencies will stay weak, certainly in the first half, and then stabilise to various degrees in the second half," he told a conference.
The Malaysian ringgit gained half of a percent to 3.573 per dollar, off its one-month low of 3.595 hit on Thursday. "It seems all short-covering and profit-taking towards the weekend," said a trader in Kuala Lumpur. The ringgit has lost 3.6 percent against the dollar so far this month amid concerns about the health of the export-dependent economy as overseas sales took a hit from weak demand.
The Singapore dollar rose as far as 1.4880 per US dollar in line its regional peers and was off its one-month low of 1.4992 hit on Thursday. The currency has lost 3.8 percent versus the US dollar this month to become one of the worst performers along with the won, which is down almost 8 percent. Singapore's central bank steers monetary policy by managing the Singapore dollar within a trade-weighted trading band rather than interest rates.
Many analysts expect the central bank to shift the undisclosed band downward when it reviews policy in April to help spur growth, but Henderson said he expected a no change in the exiting policy of zero appreciation adopted in October. A devaluation of the Singapore dollar may not help the country's exports very much as the downturn was due to collapsed demand in the West, and may spark a capital flight, he added.