Asian currencies completed their first weekly advance in a month, led by Malaysia’s ringgit, as optimism European officials would contain the region’s debt crisis helped revive demand for emerging-market assets.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, rose 0.5 percent this week as the European Central Bank (ECB) outlined plans to pump cash into the debt-ridden economy. The ringgit and the New Taiwan dollar gained as reports on Friday showed export growth accelerated. Global funds bought a combined US$403 million more of South Korean, Taiwanese and Thai shares than they sold on Thursday, exchange data show.
“Markets appear to have taken it positively that the ECB provided extraordinary liquidity measures at its policy meeting,” said Nick Verdi, a Singapore-based currency strategist at Barclays Capital. “We have very positive fundamental views on a number of Asian currencies. Given the risks emanating from Europe which will persist in the near term, the volatility isn’t likely to fall.”
The ringgit gained 1.1 percent this week to 3.1608 per US dollar yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, snapping four weeks of declines, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The NT dollar had its worst month in September since 1997, prompting central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) to say on Wednesday policymakers don’t favor a weaker currency.
Bank Indonesia will continue to purchase government debt to stabilize the rupiah, Hendar, the central bank’s director of monetary policy who uses only one name, said in a mobile-phone text message on Monday. Thailand’s central bank also said this week it entered the market to curb volatility.
The NT dollar advanced to its strongest level this week and bonds fell as international funds boosted holdings of local stocks on optimism the Taiwanese economy would withstand the fallout of slowing global growth.
Overseas funds bought US$249 million more Taiwanese stocks than they sold on Thursday, the most in three weeks, and added another US$92.7 million on Friday, according to exchange data.
Taiwanese exports rose 9.9 percent last month from a year earlier, following a 7.2 percent increase in August, the government reported toward the end of currency trading.
The NT dollar increased 0.4 percent on Friday to NT$30.49 against the greenback and was little changed from last week. Local financial markets will be closed for the Double Ten National Day holiday tomorrow.
“Looks like Taiwan’s economy is still doing fine, and investors are also hoping Europe’s crisis won’t get any worse,” said Albert Lee, a Taipei-based fixed-income trader at Cathay United Bank Co (國泰世華銀行). “Trading volume is thin before the long weekend.”
The Philippine peso gained 0.4 percent to 43.545 and the South Korean won jumped 1.1 percent to 1,178.40 on Friday and was little changed from last week.
Malaysian exports climbed 10.9 percent in August from a year earlier, the most in four months, according to a trade ministry statement on Friday. Shipments from Taiwan rose 9.9 percent last month, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday. That compared with a gain of 7.2 percent in the prior month and the median estimate of 9.6 percent in a Bloomberg survey.
The baht strengthened 0.5 percent on Friday and 0.5 percent this week to 30.94 per US dollar in Bangkok, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Data this week showed currency reserves in Taiwan fell by a record US$11.2 billion last month, while South Korea’s stockpile shrank by the most in three years, indicating central banks sold US dollars to support local currencies. Indonesian holdings dropped US$10 billion last month from a record US$124.6 billion in August, the bank reported on Thursday.
India’s rupee gained 0.4 percent on Friday to 49.1550 per US dollar, paring its drop for the week to 0.4 percent. Indonesia’s rupiah declined 0.1 percent on Friday and 1.2 percent this week to 8,900, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg.
Markets in China are shut this week for the National Day holidays.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day