The New Taiwan dollar had the biggest weekly gain since February as a US Federal Reserve plan to lift asset purchases spurred demand for emerging-market assets.
The currency touched the strongest level in four months after global funds bought US$944 million more Taiwanese stocks than they sold this week, taking this year’s net purchases to US$1.5 billion, exchange data show.
“Confirmation of QE3 [on Thursday] gave the Taiwan dollar a strong boost,” said Tarsicio Tong (湯健揚), a foreign-exchange trader at Union Bank of Taiwan (聯邦銀行). “The rally will probably last for another day or two, but after the news subsides traders will look at fundamentals again.”
The NT dollar rose 1.3 percent this week to NT$29.469 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It advanced 0.8 percent on Friday and touched NT$29.375 earlier, the strongest level since May 11.
Malaysia’s ringgit and Thailand’s baht reached four-month highs as Asian stocks posted their biggest weekly advance this year.
The ringgit strengthened 2.4 percent this week to 3.0338 per US dollar in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The baht advanced 1.5 percent to 30.75 and South Korea’s won rose 1.2 percent to 1,117.30 following a credit-rating upgrade.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s most-active currencies, climbed 0.9 percent this week to 116.92, the most since the five days ended Dec. 2 last year. The gauge’s 60-day historical volatility dropped to 3.42 percent from 3.45 percent on Sept. 7.
The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index added 3.8 percent this week, the biggest gain since December. Global funds bought US$969 million more South Korean and Taiwanese stocks than they sold this week through Thursday, taking net purchases for those countries this year to US$12 billion, exchange data show.
China’s yuan appreciated 0.45 percent this week to 6.3145 per US dollar in Shanghai, the most in seven months, according to the China Foreign Exchange System.
Elsewhere, the Philippine peso advanced 0.6 percent this week to 41.405 per US dollar, the strongest level since April 2008. India’s rupee advanced 2 percent to 54.3075, Indonesia’s rupiah rose 0.9 percent to 9,505 and Vietnam’s dong was little changed at 20,850.
The US dollar fell by the most in 11 months against the euro after the US Federal Reserve said it would start a third round of asset purchases to boost the economy, which tends to debase the currency.
The US currency fell 2.5 percent against the euro this week to US$1.3130, after reaching a four-month low of US$1.3169 on Friday. It rose 0.2 percent to ¥78.39, after touching ¥77.13 on Thursday, the least since Feb. 9. The euro added 2.7 percent to ¥102.93.
Sterling rose 1.4 percent in the week to US$1.6241 at 5:02pm London time on Friday, after climbing to US$1.6256, the highest level since April 30. The pound dropped 1 percent to £0.8088 per euro after touching £0.8115, the weakest since June 15.
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