Asian currencies rose for a fifth week, led by the New Taiwan dollar, as foreign investors poured money into the region amid optimism the global economy is recovering.
The NT dollar jumped 1.5 percent to NT$29.545 against its US counterpart as of the close on Friday, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
Yesterday the currency strengthened 0.1 percent to NT$29.525 against the US dollar, after reports showed better-than-forecast growth in US jobs, fueling global economic optimism.
The country’s financial markets were open yesterday to make up for an extended Lunar New Year holiday last week.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index saw its longest weekly run of gains since October 2010, after reports this week showed manufacturing in the US, China and Germany picked up last month.
The currencies were little changed on Friday as regional stocks snapped a three-day advance after Greece and its creditors struggled to reach an agreement on their debt swap.
“We have seen pretty good data in Asia, Europe and the US that led to risk-on sentiment and supported the Asian currencies,” said Yuji Kameoka, chief currency strategist at Daiwa Securities Co in Tokyo.
The Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the yen, climbed 0.3 percent this week to 117.78 in Singapore. It reached a three-month high on Friday.
Thailand’s baht appreciated 1 percent to 30.85 and India’s rupee surged 1.3 percent to 48.6950.
Foreign funds bought US$2.5 billion more South Korean, Taiwanese and Thai equities than they sold in the first four days of this week and a net US$536 million of India’s shares in the first three days, according to exchange data.
The NT dollar on Friday completed the biggest five-day rally in a year as foreign funds pumped money into the country’s assets and official data on Monday showed unemployment declined in December.
“Foreign inflows boosted the Taiwan dollar,” said Ivy Leung, a Taipei-based fixed-income trader at Polaris Securities Co (寶來證券). “The appreciation in the Taiwan dollar has contributed to a bond rally.”
The Thai baht had a third consecutive weekly gain and reached a seven-week high on Tuesday, a day after the Thai ministry of finance said GDP may rise 5 percent this year, compared with projected growth of 1.1 percent last year.
The Malaysian ringgit climbed for a fifth week, the longest winning streak since 2010, before the release of data that economists predict would show factory-output growth quickened for the first time in four months. The ringgit added 1 percent to 3.0088 per US dollar.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s won rose 0.5 percent this week to 1,118.07 per US dollar. The Philippine peso added 0.6 percent to 42.61 and China’s yuan strengthened 0.6 percent to 6.3028. Indonesia’s rupiah was little changed at 8,980.
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS