Asian currencies rose, paced by the Philippine peso and Indonesia's rupiah, as a regional stock rally signaled increased demand for emerging-market assets.
Investors sold yen to buy higher-yielding currencies in so-called carry trades, said Catherine Tan, head of emerging markets at Forecast Singapore Ltd.
A surge in US stocks on July 12 eased concern a housing slump will stunt export-led economic growth in Asia from one of the region's biggest overseas markets.
"Stocks rose so much and risk appetite came back, helping Asian currencies strengthen," Tan said. "Currencies against the yen also surged. Everyone's very bullish."
The US dollar lost ground against the New Taiwan dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange on Friday, decreasing NT$0.031 to close at NT$32.762.
The rupiah on Friday climbed 0.3 percent to 9,028 against the dollar in Jakarta, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The peso gained 0.5 percent to 45.755, according to data from Tullett Prebon Plc, the world's second-largest inter-dealer broker.
The Philippine currency also rose after the central bank allowed higher interest rates on large-deposit accounts, while lowering its benchmark borrowing cost. Thailand's baht had its biggest weekly gain since January, climbing for the 12th day, on speculation measures to curb the currency's advance will take time to be effective.
The Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia-Pacific Index, a regional equity benchmark, advanced 1.5 percent to an all-time high late in Asia on Friday.
South Korea's won strengthened 0.2 percent to 916.90, reaching the highest since December and bringing the week's gain to 0.3 percent, according to Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd. The KOSPI index of shares climbed to a record.
In Thailand, the baht rose 0.2 percent to 33.25 in onshore trading, the highest in almost a decade, and climbed 1 percent to 30.60 offshore.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Singapore dollar gained 0.1 percent to S$1.5146. The Vietnamese dong was little changed at 16,135.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
RSS