Short-term interbank speculators unwound exposure to emerging Asian currencies on Monday as growing debt crises in the eurozone and the United States boosted risk aversion, while the Philippine peso came under further pressure from the central bank's review on banks' non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).
Emerging Asian currencies recovered some of their losses, thanks to technical supports and to investors still seeing them as safer than assets in developed markets.
Compared with the dollar and the euro, emerging Asian currencies are expected to stay firm in the longer term, but they are not free from worries about debt crises in the US and the eurozone, analysts said.
The won eased as foreign investors kept selling Seoul shares and interbank speculators covered dollar-short positions. But the South Korean currency found relief as local shipbuilders and exporters bought it for settlements on dips.
The Philippine peso suffered from dollar-short covering amid broad risk-off trade.
The Malaysian ringgit and the Indonesian rupiah slid as interbank speculators covered dollar-short positions. But dollar/ringgit found resistance at a 55-day moving average of 3.0185 where some investors booked profits. Dollar/rupiah also hovered around a 55-day moving average of 8,553.