Asian currencies had a third weekly gain, led by India’s rupee and South Korea’s won, as signs of a global economic recovery and falling European borrowing costs boosted demand for emerging-market assets.
The won reached a six-week high as reports this week showed China’s fourth-quarter GDP expanded more than forecast, remittances by Philippine citizens abroad increased at a faster pace and claims for US jobless benefits dropped to the lowest level in almost four years.
Global funds poured a net US$2.9 billion into South Korean and Indonesian equities this week through Jan. 20 and US$485 million into India in the first three days of the week, exchange data show.
“There’s some optimism over the US and Chinese economic conditions, while Europe’s debt concern is at least not worsening,” said Kozo Hasegawa, a trader at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp in Bangkok. “That led to some fund inflows into Asia, supporting currencies. However, Europe’s problem won’t be solved anytime soon and so sentiment may not recover sharply.”
The New Taiwan dollar dropped 0.2 percent on Friday, snapping a three-day gain, as government reports showed that factory output and export orders fell more than economists estimated.
The NT dollar was little changed for the week at NT$29.99 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It touched NT$29.86 on Friday, the strongest level since Oct. 31. The country’s stock and bond markets are closed through Jan. 27 for the Lunar New Year holidays.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks 10 most-traded currencies in the region excluding the yen, climbed 0.6 percent from a week ago to 116.18.
The three-week run of gains is the first since June. The rupee climbed 2.4 percent to 50.3350 per US dollar, the won surged 1.3 percent to 1,134.21 and Malaysia’s ringgit rose 0.9 percent to 3.1042, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Philippine peso added 1.1 percent to 43.263.
The won gained for a fourth day, its longest run of appreciation in seven weeks. Data on Jan. 18 showed South Korea’s department store sales increased 11 percent, the most in eight months.
The ringgit climbed for a third week and the rupiah jumped 1.5 percent this week to 8,945 per US dollar as Indonesia attained an investment-grade credit rating from Moody’s Investors Service on Jan. 18.
“Risk appetite is the driving factor for Asian currencies,” said Saktiandi Supaat, head of foreign-exchange research at Malayan Banking Bhd in Singapore. “Attention is more on the good data coming out of the US market, sending the focus away from the debt crisis in Europe.”
The rupiah touched a two-month high on Friday after foreign funds bought US$226 million more local shares than they sold in the week, exchange data show.
China’s yuan dropped 0.5 percent this week, the most in about a year, to 6.3390, amid speculation policy makers would limit appreciation to protect exporters as global economic growth slows. The financial crisis is deepening, the Xinhua news agency reported on Friday, citing comments made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) while visiting Chinese citizens in Qatar.
The Thai baht gained 0.8 percent to 31.54 per US dollar.
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest high-end smartphone features more Chinese suppliers, including a new flash memory chip and an improved chip processor, a teardown analysis showed, pointing to the progress China is making toward technology self-sufficiency. The inside of Huawei’s Pura 70 Pro was examined by online tech repair company iFixit and consultancy TechSearch International, finding components made by Chinese suppliers. The firms also found that the Pura 70 phones run on an advanced processing chipset made by Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) called the Kirin 9010, which is likely a slightly improved version of the advanced chip