The Taiwan dollar ended at its strongest close in 2009 on Monday, rising on fund inflows and denting safe-haven demand for the greenback, but its climb was kept in check by the central bank. The Taiwan dollar rose to an intraday high of T$33.821, but later pared some of those gains to close the session at T$32.889, stronger than Friday's close of T$33.040.
Both the close and the intraday peak were the strongest since December 31 last year. Volume on the main Taipei Forex Inc exchange was active at $1.37 billion, higher than Friday's $1.032 billion. "Foreign fund bought quite a lot of Taiwan dollars in trade today," said a dealer in Taipei. "The central bank was on the other side, doing most of the buying of US dollars, but volume was quite heavy and it couldn't keep up with the overall firming trend."
Taiwan's central bank manages the Taiwan dollar in a controlled float and sometimes intervenes to taper fluctuations it feels are excessive. Investors also cheered US data that showed that the 539,000 jobs lost in April were the fewest since October, fuelling expectations the world's largest economy has bottomed out and likely to benefit export-reliant emerging markets.