Asian currencies strengthened this week by the most in more than two years, led by South Korea’s won, after European leaders agreed measures to tackle a debt crisis that drove investors from emerging-market assets.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index completed its biggest weekly gain since May 2009, after a report on Thursday showed the US economy grew at the fastest pace in a year in the third quarter. Overseas investors pumped US$2.9 billion into equities in Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand in the past five days, exchange data show. The won rose to a six-week high, supported by a widening current-account surplus.
“There’s definitely progress and that’s what the market is cheering about, especially when expectations were very low to begin with,” said Sim Moh Siong, a currency strategist at Bank of Singapore Ltd (新加坡銀行). “The risk rally will likely linger in the short term.”
The won completed a 3.9 percent gain this week to 1,104.88 per US dollar in Seoul. The New Taiwan dollar appreciated for a fourth week, rising 1.4 percent to NT$29.869. The Singapore dollar strengthened 2.9 percent to S$1.2426, Malaysia’s ringgit gained 2.7 percent to 3.0663 and the Thai baht advanced 1.6 percent to 30.53.
The won touched a six-week high of 1,100.70 on Friday after the Bank of Korea said the current-account surplus jumped to US$3.1 billion last month, from US$293 million in August. It last recorded a deficit in February last year.
“The won will try to strengthen to near 1,090 per [US] dollar, which was the level from which the currency started weakening,” said Kim Doo-hyun, a senior currency dealer at Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul. “[South] Korea has posted current-account surpluses for 19 months, which is also positive for the won.”
The NT dollar breached the NT$30 level for the first time in a month and the ringgit completed its biggest weekly gain since December 2008.
China’s yuan appreciated 0.4 percent to 6.3586 in Shanghai for its best week in more than two months, according to China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The Chinese central bank set its daily reference rate 0.29 percent higher at a record 6.3290 on Friday, the biggest increase since November last year.
“The record fixing shows China’s determination to tackle inflation, as a stronger currency can lower import costs,” said Kenix Lai (賴春梅), a Hong Kong-based foreign-exchange analyst at Bank of East Asia Ltd (東亞銀行).
The Philippine peso advanced 1.9 percent to 42.62 per US dollar, its best performance since December 2009. Indonesia’s rupiah rose 0.8 percent to 8,790 and India’s rupee strengthened 2.6 percent to 48.7663, recouping all of the slump last week to a two-and-a-half-year low.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the