NT dollar falls as jittery investors sell off shares

The Taiwan dollar fell, the biggest fluctuation of any currency yesterday, as investors abroad sold shares this week on concern relations with China will deteriorate after the Beijing government passed its "Anti-Secession" Law.

The currency was headed for its biggest weekly percentage loss since July 2002 as investors abroad made net sales of stocks for four straight days, yesterday selling the most in almost a year. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on March 16 said a million people will join a March 26 protest against the Chinese law, which would authorize an attack should Taiwan declare independence.

"Some people are nervous about the issue, weighing on the Taiwan dollar," said Tarcisio Tong, a currency trader at Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行).

The currency fell NT$0.06 against its US counterpart to close at NT$31.152 in Taipei on turnover of US$840 million yesterday, bringing the weekly decline to 1.2 percent, according to Taipei Forex Inc.

The loss for the week would be the biggest on a percentage basis since the seven days ending July 26, 2002. It would also be the first weekly decline since the first week of January.

Taiwan's dollar may slide to NT$31.20 next week, Tong said.

The world's biggest movers are based on changes in price or yield and are screened for the size of the market and amount of daily trading.

Yesterday, investors based outside of Taiwan made net stock sales of US$390.7 million.

The local dollar also fell on concern the nation's central bank will sell the currency to protect exporters, which account for about half of the economy.

The bank may "enter the foreign-exchange market to make adjustments," governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said on March 14.

The Taipei-based Economic Daily News yesterday said Taiwan and South Korea may cooperate to counter speculative inflows of "hot money" that have pushed their currencies higher. Taiwan's deputy central bank governor Liang Fa-chin (梁發進) met Park Seung, the governor of the central bank in South Korea, the newspaper said.