Asian currencies gained this week, led by the Thai baht’s advance to an eight-month high, as improving economic data in the region spurred capital inflows.
Manufacturing in China, the world’s second-biggest economy, expanded this month by the most since January last year, and Taiwan’s export orders last month had the biggest increase in 17 months, reports this week showed.
Global funds bought US$2.3 billion more of Thailand’s bonds than they sold in the last five days, set for the largest net weekly purchases since September. Thai stocks also drew funds, as did equities in India, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan, exchange figures show.
“We’re starting to see slightly better data out of Asia,” said Callum Henderson, Singapore-based global head of foreign-exchange research at Standard Chartered PLC. “Expectations for a China macroeconomic stabilization have increased on the back of second-quarter GDP and flash PMI data.”
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, rose 0.14 percent from July 18.
The baht rallied 0.9 percent to 31.850 per US dollar, advancing for a fifth week, on optimism the military junta, which seized power in a May 22 coup, would revive growth.
The New Taiwan dollar edged up 0.1 percent this week to NT$30.035 per US dollar. On Friday, the greenback shed NT$0.017 from a day earlier, as regional currencies posted gains and the local currency followed suit, dealers said.
However, the US dollar’s fall was limited by a sell-off by foreign institutional investors in Taiwan’s equity markets and intervention by Taiwan’s central bank to cap the appreciation of the NT dollar, they said.
The Philippine peso gained 0.5 percent to 43.285 on speculation the nation’s strengthening external finances would spur debt inflows. India’s rupee strengthened 0.3 percent to 60.1050.
Malaysia’s ringgit appreciated 0.3 percent in the last five days to 3.175 per US dollar. It has gained for five straight weeks, the longest winning streak since March.
Indonesia’s rupiah climbed 0.3 percent to 11,578 and reached a two-month high of 11,483 on Wednesday after Joko Widodo was named the nation’s next president following a July 9 vote.
China’s yuan climbed 0.3 percent to 6.1915 and South Korea’s won advanced 0.3 percent to 1,026.15, while Vietnam’s dong retreated 0.1 percent to 21,228.
US LABOR GAINS
A gauge of the US dollar advanced the most in four months as reports showed signs of improvement in the US labor market before the US Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday and Wednesday to debate the pace of interest-rate increases.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the US currency against 10 major counterparts, added 0.5 percent this week in New York, the most since the period ending March 21, and touched 1,014.39, the highest since June 18.
The US currency rose 0.7 percent to US$1.3430 per euro, the largest weekly gain since June 13, and touched US$1.3422, the strongest since Nov. 21. The greenback climbed for a second week against the yen, advancing 0.5 percent to ¥101.84. The euro slid 0.2 percent to ¥136.77.
Sterling fell below US$1.70 for the first time in a month after retail sales increased less than economists forecast and comments from the Bank of England dampened investor expectations for higher borrowing costs.
Benchmark 10-year gilt yields dropped to the lowest in eight weeks as Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said this week that rate increases would be more restrained than in the past as “extraordinary forces” were still confronting the British economy.
The pound dropped 0.7 percent to US$1.6970 at 5pm London time, the biggest weekly decline since March 21. It reached US$1.7192 on July 15, the highest since October 2008. Sterling was little changed at £0.7914 per euro.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”