Asian currencies had their first weekly gain in a month, led by the Philippine peso, on optimism regional economic growth is starting to pick up.
Taiwanese export orders rose more than estimated last month, government data showed on Tuesday, while a preliminary manufacturing index in China released on Thursday indicated output may have expanded for the first time in 13 months.
“Growth momentum in Asia is clearly taking off,” said Enrico Tanuwidjaja, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group in Singapore. “We have seen some slowing down, but not a collapse. That’s why Asian currencies are supported.”
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index rose 0.2 percent in the past five days after declining for the previous three weeks.
The New Taiwan dollar advanced 0.4 percent this week to NT$29.171 per US dollar, and the peso rose 0.7 percent to 41.052. South Korea’s won appreciated 0.6 percent to 1,086.11, and Malaysia’s ringgit climbed 0.5 percent to 3.0590. China’s yuan gained 0.11 percent to 6.2285.
Overseas investors pumped a net US$625 million into Thai, Philippine and South Korean stocks this week through Thursday, exchange data show.
“Funds continue to come into Asia, which supports regional currencies,” said Kozo Hasegawa, a Bangkok-based foreign-exchange trader at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. “Data out of China are improving, providing some relief to investors to buy emerging-market assets.”
The peso approached the strongest level since March 2008 on Friday, after Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Assistant Governor Cyd Amador told reporters in Manila on Thursday that the monetary authority has allowed some appreciation in the currency as it sees “very strong” overseas remittances and inflows into business-process outsourcing. The bank will maintain an orderly foreign-exchange market, while keeping a flexible exchange-rate policy, she said.
The won pared its weekly advance, falling for a third day, as concern the government would act to stem currency gains offset optimism the Chinese economy is recovering.
South Korean Deputy Finance Minister Choi Jong Ku said on Thursday there was “herd behavior” in the currency market and the government would take action to curb excessive fluctuations. The won has rallied 6.1 percent against the US dollar this year.
“There’s risk appetite in the market with data from China, but caution against government intervention will restrict won gains,” said Kim Dong Young, a Seoul-based currency dealer for Industrial Bank of Korea.
Elsewhere, Thailand’s baht rose 0.2 percent this week to 30.69 per US dollar, while Indonesia’s rupiah fell 0.3 percent to 9,655. India’s rupee lost 0.6 percent to 55.5150 and Vietnam’s dong was little changed at 20,853.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is