Emerging Asian currencies are unlikely to find relief in comments coming from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at the end of a week during which the South Korean won snapped a four-week losing streak and the Singapore dollar was poised to have a third consecutive weekly gain.
All investors are keeping an eye on Bernanke's speech on Friday at an annual central bankers conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but the US central bank chief is not expected to hint new measures to boost the world's top economy. For the week, the won rose 0.5 percent against the dollar, after posting losses the four previous weeks, according to Reuters calculations.
Still, the South Korean currency has lost 2.5 percent so far this month, failing to recover to its level at the end of May. The Singapore dollar has risen 0.3 percent versus the greenback this week, but the currency - the best performing emerging Asian ones this year - was 0.4 percent weaker than at the end of July.
"We may see dollar weakness (if Bernanke hints at a QE3), but we still have US non-farm payroll data next week," said Saktiandi Supaat, head of FX Research at Maybank in Singapore. The South Korean currency extended gains in the afternoon, strengthening past a 120-day moving average on stop-loss dollar selling. The Singapore dollar advanced as it faced support around 1.2100 per US dollar. A level of 1.2103 represents a 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement line of the currency's weakening between late July and early August.
On Friday, the Singapore dollar briefly strengthened past 1.2061, the 76.4 retracement level, but investors were reluctant to buy it further ahead of Bernanke's speech. The rupiah rose as the central bank was spotted selling dollars to stem the local currency's depreciation. Foreign banks' selling put pressure on the Indonesian currency, but Bank Indonesia aggressively lifted it to 8,570 per dollar, dealers and analysts said. The rupiah has eased 0.1 percent against the dollar for the week on corporate demand ahead of the end of the month and next week's holidays. The Indonesian financial markets will be closed all of next week.