Crude is greasing the wheels of one of the world’s best-performing exotic currencies.
Kazakhstan’s tenge, which has racked up the biggest advance among its thinly traded counterparts the past six months, is poised for more gains as demand increases following the rally in the price of oil, the former Soviet republic’s No. 1 export, according to BMI Research.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch is also a fan, saying earlier this month that the tenge could climb 15 percent this year, thanks to elevated crude prices.
The tenge has risen more than 6 percent since the middle of August last year, putting it well in front of its nearest competitors — the Lesotho loti and Swaziland lilangeni — when it comes to exotic-currency gains, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Following a seven-day rally, the tenge closed at 318.80 per US dollar on Friday, close to its highest level since the end of 2015.
After breaking resistance at 326 per US dollar late last month, there are now no clear near-term resistance levels between the tenge’s spot rate and 195 per US dollar, the level the currency traded at before the central bank shifted to a free float in 2015, analysts at BMI, a unit of Fitch Group Inc., wrote in a research note dated Thursday last week.
Given that oil prices probably will not rise much in the near term, the scope for further gains in the tenge could be circumscribed, BMI said.
The group forecasts crude averaging US$57 a barrel this year and US$60 next year. Brent has advanced 14 percent over the past six months. US drilling activity poses a headwind for oil prices.
Oil output in Kazakhstan, central Asia’s largest energy producer, has picked up this year with the resumption of pumping at the Kashagan field, which is set to push out 370,000 barrels a day by the end of this year, said its operator, North Caspian Operating Co NV.
Last month, Kazakhstan produced 1.67 million barrels of oil a day.
The tenge could appreciate toward 310 per US dollar by the end of this year, before averaging 302.50 next year and 290 in 2019, BMI forecasts.
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],”
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
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