The Philippine peso and most other Asian currencies fell on Thursday due to the dollar's broad strength and weakness in regional stocks, prompting Indonesia's central bank to intervene to stem the slide in the rupiah. The dollar rose towards a seven-month high against a basket of currencies after the International Monetary Fund said it planned to sell more gold in the market, pushing down bullion prices and commodity-linked currencies.
The IMF said it would begin phased, open-market sales of the remaining 191.3 tonnes of gold it plans to sell under a programme launched last year to raise new resources for lending. Investors have reduced their long positions in emerging Asian currencies, including the South Korean won, Indian rupee and Indonesian rupiah, a Reuters poll showed.
Markets in China and Taiwan remained shut for holidays. The rupiah fell as much as 0.7 percent to 9,328 per dollar, pulled down by the dollar's broad strength and falling stocks. But the losses were limited by suspected intervention by Bank Indonesia via dollar selling.
The rupiah was also undermined by higher dollar/rupiah NDF fixings while fund inflows seen in recent days were drying up, traders said. Meanwhile one-month dollar/rupiah NDFs rose to 9,357 from 9,295 late on Wednesday. The peso shed half of a percent to 46.19 per dollar, but many traders still expected it to rebound.
The impact from data showing the Philippines' 2009 fiscal deficit hit a record 298.5 billion pesos appeared to be limited, traders say. Meanwhile, one-month dollar/peso NDFs rose to 46.30 from 46.15 late on Wednesday. One-month onshore forwards climbed to 46.26 from 46.20.
The NDF/onshore spread reversed to 40 points from minus 46 points on Wednesday, indicating onshore investors are more bullish on the peso. The Singapore dollar eased a tad to 1.41 to the US dollar, but many market players believe it will strengthen in the near term.
Charts point to further rise in the Singapore unit, with the MACD and slow stochastics both turning bullish. But it needs to break key resistance near 1.40. A trader said the Singapore unit may test 1.40 level if the euro rise above $1.38 from the current level near $1.358.