Asian currencies advanced this week, led by the biggest five-day gain in South Korea’s won in two months, as reports on manufacturing signaled regional growth.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index strengthened 1.1 percent for the week to 115.30. South Korea’s won appreciated 1.9 percent to 1,138.55, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. India’s rupee climbed 1.6 percent to 45.1060 and the Singapore dollar added 1.1 percent to S$1.3059.
Expansion in factory production accelerated in China, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore over the past two months, official data showed this week, bolstering the outlook for Asian exporters. The IMF forecasts the region’s economies will expand at a faster pace than developed nations this year.
“Some good data support risk appetite,” said Minori Uchida, senior analyst in Tokyo at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. “Asian growth is solid and currencies will continue to strengthen, but probably at a slower pace than this year.”
The New Taiwan dollar rose this week on speculation the central bank will tolerate appreciation after Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) said the bank would allow greater flexibility in the currency.
The NT dollar climbed 0.3 percent to NT$30.745 against its US counterpart this week, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency was trading 1.6 percent stronger a minute before Friday’s close and then pared gains to 0.1 percent on suspected central bank intervention. It reached NT$30.015 on Nov. 12, the strongest level since March 2008.
The NT dollar has advanced 2.9 percent so far this quarter, the best performance among Asian currencies outside Japan. The currency has climbed 5.5 percent this year, lagging the Thai baht’s 10.7 percent gain, the Malaysian ringgit’s 8.7 percent rise and the 7.2 percent appreciation in the Singapore dollar.
Elsewhere this week, the Philippine peso advanced 0.8 percent to 43.895 per US dollar and the Thai baht gained 0.5 percent to 30.05. The Chinese yuan climbed 0.1 percent to 6.6633 and Indonesia’s rupiah was little changed from Nov. 26 at 9,009.
The euro rose against the US dollar for the first week in a month as the European Central Bank (ECB) moved to curb the spread of the sovereign-debt crisis and economic data in China and Europe fueled demand for higher-yielding assets.
The euro strengthened 1.3 percent to US$1.3414 on Friday, the first increase since the five days ended Nov. 5, from US$1.3242 on Nov. 26. It touched US$1.2969 on Tuesday, the lowest level since Sept. 15. The shared currency fell 0.6 percent to ￥110.73, from ￥111.37.
The yen gained against the US dollar for the first time in five weeks, advancing 1.9 percent to ￥82.53, the strongest level since Nov. 15. It closed at ￥84.10 on Nov. 26.
The pound posted its first weekly gain against the US dollar, although it declined against the euro.
Sterling appreciated 1 percent to US$1.5752 at 5:24pm in London, a weekly gain of 1 percent. It weakened 0.3 percent to ￡0.8494 per euro, little changed over the week.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS