The South Korean won surged on Friday, while other Asian currencies also eked out gains after a pull-back in the safe-haven dollar, as investors awaited a closely-watched jobs US report later in the day.
The won surged as much as 1.4%, poised for its best day since Nov. 15 to trade at 1307.1 per dollar, even as it emerged as one of the weakest performing currencies in the region, dropping 3.3% on a year-to-date basis.
South Korea’s National Pension Service and the country’s central bank were said to be in talks to extend their foreign exchange swap programme due to expire this month, Reuters had exclusively reported.
Additionally, Japan’s yen advanced as much as 1.2% after heightened expectations that the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate policy stance would soon end.
That in turn, resulted in the dollar index - which measures the strength of the greenback against six major rivals - slipping about 0.1% to 103.56 as at 0330 GMT.
Asian currencies: Taiwan dollar, Korean won higher
“There remains a modest left-tail risk of significantly higher inflation, which may force the BOJ to tighten more significantly than markets expect. This could drag up global bond yields and strengthen the JPY,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco.
Meanwhile, other Asian currencies including the Taiwan dollar, Singapore dollar,Philippines peso, Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit traded from flat to up about 0.6%.
Thailand, Philippines and South Korea had earlier reported that their respective inflation prints eased in November, although central banks in Philippines and South Korea flagged that interest rates would have to remain higher for longer to battle persistent inflation.
All eyes will be on the crucial non-farm payrolls reports due late in the global day, which will give further clarity on rate hikes from the US Federal Reserve.
“Today’s NFP could be key, followed by CPI and the Fed’s dot plot next week. If Fed tries to push back on rate cut expectations that the market has built up, we could see Asian stocks and currencies getting hurt,” Charu Chanana, a markets strategist with Saxo Markets, said.
Among Asian equities, stocks in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia rose between 0.4% and 1%, with Singaporean shares poised for their best day since mid-November. Reuters