India’s rupee led an advance in Asian currencies this week after exit polls showed that the main opposition party is gaining support, while the Thai baht had the biggest loss amid anti-government protests.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index climbed 0.1 percent over the past five days, halting two weeks of losses.
In Taipei, the New Taiwan dollar was little changed against the greenback, ending the week at NT$29.665 compared with NT$29.679 on Nov. 29.
The US dollar fell against the NT dollar Friday, shedding NT$0.025 in thin trading as many traders stayed on the sidelines ahead of the release of a jobs report in the US later that day.
The anxiety of traders over the job data was running high after Washington reported stronger-than-expected economic growth for the third quarter on Wednesday, escalating fears that the Fed will soon taper its billion bond buying program, they said.
The central bank, as it has done recently, entered the trading floor late in the session, picking up the greenback and cutting its NT dollar holdings to help the US currency recoup most of its earlier losses, dealers said.
Downward pressure emerged as traders took cues from a move by the People’s Bank of China to raise the reference rate to a new high for the Chinese yuan in exchange for the US currency, dealers said.
Many traders suspected that the higher rate showed greater willingness by Chinese authorities to allow the yuan to trade in a wider range, which could boost the value of other regional units, they said.
The rupee appreciated 1.2 percent this week to 61.6813 per US dollar, the most since the period ended on Oct. 4, as of 2:19pm on Friday in Mumbai, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The yuan had its biggest weekly gain in more than a month, adding 0.19 percent to 6.0817, as the People’s Bank of China set the daily fixing at the strongest level on record amid speculation steps to loosen foreign exchange rules will lure inflows.
The Chinese central bank boosted the reference rate by 0.13 percent to 6.1232 per US dollar on Friday, the strongest since a peg to the greenback ended in July 2005 and 0.15 percent higher than a week ago. The monetary authority is proposing free convertibility of the yuan in special accounts in Shanghai’s free-trade zone, according to a document published on Monday on its Web site.
The baht had a sixth weekly decline, falling 0.9 percent to 32.34 to post its longest losing streak since June, due to concern that prolonged political unrest will hurt investor sentiment.
Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s won was little changed this week at 1,057.90 against the greenback, while Indonesia’s rupiah was steady at 11,964, the Philippine peso lost 0.4 percent to 43.955, Malaysia’s ringgit fell 0.3 percent to 3.2337 and Vietnam’s dong weakened 0.1 percent to 21,140.
The euro rallied for a fourth week against the greenback, the longest streak since June, as European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi refrained from adding to monetary stimulus.
Europe’s 17-nation currency rallied 0.9 percent to US$1.3706 this week in New York, while the greenback rose 0.5 percent to ¥102.91, the sixth straight weekly gain and the longest streak since February. Japan’s currency fell 1.3 percent to ¥141.03 per euro.
The 17-nation currency strengthened versus most of its 16 major peers as the EU central bank’s stance outweighed labor and economic data in the US that was stronger than forecast, as traders bet the Fed will keep its benchmark interest rates unchanged even when it slows its bond-buying.
The yen fell as the head of an advisory panel called on Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund to start cutting domestic debt.
The Bloomberg US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against 10 major counterparts, fell 0.4 percent to 1,016.87, snapping two weeks of gains.
In London, sterling fell the most in two months against the euro.
The pound lost 1 percent to £0.8386 per euro, the steepest decline since Oct. 4.
It reached £0.8253 on Monday, the strongest since Jan. 11, but fell 0.3 percent against the greenback to US$1.6324.
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