The New Taiwan dollar closed down 0.14 percent at NT$30.42 against the US dollar yesterday on the first trading day after the Lunar New Year holiday, in line with the downtrend seen among major Asian currencies over the past week on US stimulus tapering.
The NT dollar fell by NT$0.044 against the greenback on the Taipei Foreign Exchange Market from Wednesday last week, after regaining some momentum from a low of NT$30.549 touched in the middle session yesterday.
On the smaller Cosmos Foreign Exchange Market, the local currency ended at NT$30.415 against the US dollar yesterday, down NT$0.05 from Wednesday last week.
The US Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee announced on Wednesday last week that it will taper its bond-buying scheme by US$10 billion a month.
The move dragged down most major Asian currencies versus the greenback over the past week, and analysts expected the NT dollar would follow suit by trading lower versus the US dollar when the foreign exchange market reopened yesterday.
In addition, foreign investors sold a net total of NT$44.39 billion (US$1.46 billion) in shares in Taiwan yesterday, further weakening the movements of the NT dollar.
Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶華綜合經濟研究院) has predicted the NT dollar would fluctuate between NT$30.4 and NT$30.5 in the near-term under the market conditions.
Total trading volume expanded to US$1.46 billion yesterday, with a US$1.03 billion turnover on the Taipei Forex and US$430 million on the Cosmos forex market.
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