Most Asian currencies pared this week’s losses after the announcement that investors with 95.7 percent of Greece’s privately held bonds will participate in a debt swap and a report indicated China’s inflation slowed.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index of stocks climbed 0.7 percent on Friday, capping its biggest two-day advance since January. Consumer prices in China rose last month at the slowest pace since June 2010, providing scope for the central bank to ease monetary policy and support economic growth. Malaysia’s ringgit fell following a two-day rally as the country’s central bank left interest rates unchanged for a fifth straight meeting.
Optimism about the Greek debt swap “was priced into the market before the announcement and the announcement is a nice relief,” said Choong Yin Pheng, manager for economic and bond research at Hong Leong Bank BHD in Kuala Lumpur. “China is growing relatively strongly and people are hopeful for more supporting policies.”
The New Taiwan dollar climbed 0.1 percent on Friday to NT$29.504 and was down 0.2 percent from March 2. India’s rupee appreciated 1 percent to 49.795 per US dollar in Mumbai, trimming its weekly decline to 0.6 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Indonesia’s rupiah rose 0.2 percent to 9,123 per US dollar, paring its weekly loss to 0.5 percent.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index climbed as much as 0.1 percent on Friday and closed at 117.42, little changed from the day before. It ended the week lower for the first time since Feb. 10. The index’s 60-day historical volatility dropped to 3.35 percent, the lowest measure of price swings since August last year, signaling reduced market uncertainty.
China’s yuan gained the most in a month after data showed consumer prices last month rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier, less than the 3.4 percent estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The currency on Friday climbed 0.09 percent to 6.3107 per US dollar, paring this week’s loss to 0.2 percent, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
“Easing inflation is good news for China’s economy as it means more room for policy easing,” said Daniel Chan, chief economist at BWC Capital Markets in Hong Kong.
The Bank of Korea left its seven-day repurchase rate on hold for a ninth straight month at 3.25 percent this week, while Bank Indonesia kept its reference rate at 5.75 percent.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s won closed the week 0.2 percent lower at 1,117.90, while the Philippine peso strengthened 0.3 percent 42.585. Vietnam’s dong was little changed on Friday and climbed 1 percent to 20,830 over the week. Thailand’s baht dropped 0.2 percent on Friday to 30.59, ending the week down by the same margin.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained