The Malaysian ringgit and the South Korean won broke through major support levels on Monday and appeared poised for further losses, leading falls in emerging Asian currencies, as investors dumped riskier assets amid persistent worries about Greece's debt crisis.
The ringgit shed 1.6 percent against the dollar, its biggest daily percentage loss since June 7 last year, on stop-loss selling by macro and leveraged accounts. The Malaysian currency weakened past the 3.0400 resistance indicated by the daily Ichimoku cloud and is expected to head to 3.0700, the 200-day moving average. The won broke through the 55-day moving average as market players unwound positions and on further heavy selling of Seoul shares.
Initially, exporters provided some relief to the South Korean currency, but they disappeared in the market amid expectations for a further fall, dealers said. The local unit is seen weakening more, probably to 1,102/3 per dollar, lows of dollar/won during November last year and February. The Singapore dollar weakened past 1.246 per the US dollar, the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement level of March-April strengthening trend. The Singapore dollar may suffer more stop-loss selling at 1.2500 and 1.2530.