The New Taiwan dollar had its strongest closing against the US dollar in 13 months yesterday at the Taipei foreign exchange market, gaining NT$0.083 to end at NT$33.772.
The local currency, which opened at NT$33.832, rose for a fourth day amid continued bearishness versus the greenback. Turnover totaled US$2.46 billion, up sharply from last Friday's US$995 million.
A central bank official yesterday attributed the unit's highest close since May 25 to broad-based weakness in the US dollar.
Chou A-ting (周阿定), director general of the foreign exchange department at the central bank, said the New Taiwan dollar grew 0.025 percent against the US dollar yesterday, compared with the yen's 1.49 percent advance, the euro's 1.07-percent increase, Korean won's 0.49-percent rise, and Singapore dollar's 0.39-percent gain.
In addition, heavy US dollar selling by local technology companies also contributed to the New Taiwan dollar's rise, Chou said.
As the greenback remained weak, a number of local technology companies were cashing US dollars for local currency, bank officials said.
To prevent volatility, Chou urged companies to spread out their US dollar sales.
The central bank was reportedly intervening in the market late in the session, pushing back the level of the local unit to NT$33.772 from NT$33.553, but Chou declined to comment on the rumor.
While the local unit has recently followed the movement of a stronger yen, it is expected to be traded in a range between NT$33.550 and NT$33.650 against the greenback today, dealers said.
Wu Chung-shu (吳中書), a research fellow at the Institute of Economics of Academia Sinica (
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