The South Korean won and Malaysian ringgit jumped on the dollar's broad weakness on Friday, but their gains were capped by lingering concerns about renewed interventions to curb currency rises. The beleaguered US dollar extended its weakening streak, hitting its latest low for the year against the euro as the market took aim at options barriers.
WON The won jumped 1 percent to 1,178.5 per dollar, buoyed by the dollar's broad weakness and rising local stocks. Investors remained concerned about possible official dollar-buying intervention to temper the gains. "But we see less panic in the market today as the spot is still of the high," said a Singapore-based trader.
The authorities have intervened in recent weeks to slow the rise in the won, which hit a 13-month high last Thursday. Analysts believe Asia's central banks will keep intervening near term to curb currency strength to help exporters, but they may change tack in 2010 to rely on currency appreciation to contain inflation.
RINGGIT The ringgit gained 0.6 percent to 3.3748 per dollar, taking its cue from euro's jump vs the dollar, as investors await the 2010 budget. "A reduction in the deficit to within 5.5-6.5% is very positive for the ringgit and plays into a curve flattening for the yield curve," said Suresh Ramanathan, strategist at CIMB Investment Bank.
The ringgit was set to fall 0.3 percent this week, reversing from a 0.8 percent rise in the previous week and a 2 percent jump in the week ended October 9 - the sharpest week gain this year. Meanwhile, three-month dollar/ringgit NDFs edged up to 3.3835, implying a 0.1 percent ringgit fall from the spot, reversing from the implied 0.1 percent rise on Thursday.
SINGAPORE DOLLAR The Singapore dollar also followed the euro higher against the US currency, gaining a fifth of a percent to 1.3906 per US dollar, but concerns about intervention capped its upside. The Singapore dollar's weekly gain is pick up slightly to 0.2 percent this week from 0.1 percent last week, which compared to the 1.3 percent rally in the week ended October 9 - the strongest performance since May.