Asian currencies dropped for a third week, the longest run of losses since January, as the prospect of higher US interest rates dimmed the appeal of emerging-market assets.
Indonesia’s rupiah and Malaysia’s ringgit led the declines after the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised by 25 basis points its median estimate for where the federal funds rate would be by the end of next year, while pledging to keep it near zero for a “considerable time.”
Global funds pulled a combined US$1 billion from stocks in Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, India and the Philippines this week. Scotland voted to stay in the UK in a referendum on independence.
“The key concern is capital outflows from Asia to the US,” Ho Woei Chen, an economist at United Overseas Bank Ltd in Singapore, said on Friday. “The US could raise interest rates at a faster pace than expected.”
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks 10 regional currencies excluding the yen against the greenback, fell 0.2 percent this week to 115.78.
The New Taiwan dollar depreciated 0.6 percent this week to NT$30.258 against its US counterpart on Friday. It shed NT$0.002 from Thursday, on expectations of higher interest rates in the US, dealers said.
Institutional selling in the local bourse added downward pressure on the NT dollar, they added. However, gains posted by the Chinese yuan helped the NT dollar fend off some selling and limit the upturn enjoyed by the US dollar.
The rupiah dropped 1.3 percent from Sept. 12 to 11,968 per US dollar in Jakarta and the ringgit weakened 1.1 percent to 3.2340.
The Philippine peso declined 1.2 percent to 44.43 on Thursday, before the country’s financial markets were shut on Friday due to rain and flooding.
South Korea’s won fell 0.9 percent this week in the longest run of losses since May last year, and dropped 0.2 percent on Friday to 1,044.70 per US dollar in Seoul, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
In Shanghai, the yuan fell 0.1 percent this week to 6.1415 per US dollar, China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices show.
Elsewhere in Asia, India’s rupee fell 0.3 percent to 60.8275. Thailand’s baht gained 0.1 percent to 32.20, while Vietnam’s dong was little changed at 21,205.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS