An index tracking Asian currencies rose this month, rebounding from September’s biggest drop since 2012, as optimism about Indonesia’s new government buoyed the rupiah and lower oil prices boosted India’s rupee.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index climbed 0.2 percent last month to 115.18 as of 5:48pm on Friday in Hong Kong, after falling 1.4 percent last month in the biggest decline since May 2012. The rupiah strengthened 0.8 percent to 12,085 per US dollar, the rupee advanced 0.6 percent to 61.4125 and China’s yuan rose 0.4 percent to 6.1135.
Joko Widodo, who was sworn in as Indonesia’s president on Oct. 20, has pledged to cut fuel subsidies and boost economic growth to more than 7 percent. A 23 percent slide in Brent crude since the end of June is helping cool inflation and narrow the budget deficit in India, which imports almost 80 percent of its oil.
“The rupiah benefited from some positive political developments in the lead-up to Joko Widodo’s inauguration, while lower oil prices are seen to benefit the rupee the most,” said Khoon Goh, ANZ’s currency strategist in Singapore.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback against 10 major currencies, rose on Friday to the highest level since Oct. 6 after the Fed decided to end its asset-purchase program on Thursday and Japan unexpectedly added monetary stimulus.
Global funds pulled a combined US$4 billion this month from stocks in Taiwan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand, according to exchange data.
The New Taiwan dollar fell 0.1 percent to NT$30.478 against the US currency last month. On Friday, it gained NT$0.076 from Thursday after the central bank intervened to reverse the greenback’s earlier losses in a bid to maintain Taiwan’s global competitiveness, dealers said.
The central bank’s move offset the impact of heavy buying by Taiwanese exporters who needed the local unit to meet end-of-the-month fund demands, they said.
South Korea’s won weakened 1.2 percent on Friday in the biggest drop since June last year to 1,068.82 won per US dollar following the BOJ’s announcement. That took the won’s loss to 1.3 percent last month.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Thai baht dropped 0.4 percent to 32.553 last month, Malaysia’s ringgit declined 0.3 percent to 3.2895, and Vietnam’s dong lost 0.2 percent to 21,280. The Philippine peso was little changed at 44.895.
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