Asian currencies mostly lower in late trade

Asian currencies mostly lower in late trade

SINGAPORE (Agencies): Asian currencies are mostly lower late Thursday, dragged down by weakness in the Indonesian rupiah on concerns of further separatist violence in the country's strife- torn province of Aceh.

The South Korean won, however, ignored the downward bias to trade stronger for the fourth consecutive session, marking a new five-month closing high of 1,158.2 won against the dollar.

But it was developments involving Aceh that swayed most regional currency markets.

President Abdurrahman Wahid's decision to rebuff demands by military and police commanders to declare martial law in Aceh, and the killing of six civilians in the restive province has generated bearish sentiment toward Indonesia.

Hundreds of Indonesian troops and police are on their way to Aceh to deal with any escalation of violence.

"The apparent split between the government and the army over whether martial law should be imposed in Aceh probably means the rupiah is still tending toward 7,200," said Bank of America in its daily research note.

A rally of around 1,000 Acehnese in Jakarta to press demands for a plebiscite also weighed on the rupiah, and Jakarta stocks, which fell for the seventh consecutive session.

On Wednesday, Wahid, who is on a four-day tour of the Middle East, rejected calls for an East Timor-style vote for independence, saying he would only allow the Acehnese to choose whether or not to live under Islamic law.

Late in Asian dealings, the dollar was quoted up at Rp 7,185 from Rp 7,100 the previous day.

The U.S. dollar was lower to the euro and higher against the yen Thursday in quiet trade in Singapore, dealers said.

The euro closed at 1.0187 dollars, slightly higher from four- month lows of 1.0185 dollars on opening, while the dollar rose to 104.52 yen from 104.40, according to rates provided by Banque Nationale de Paris.

A dealer with the French bank said trading was very quiet with markets in the United States closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, and an absence of market-moving news. T he British pound closed lower at 1.6087 dollars after opening at 1.6107.

Against Asian currencies, the greenback was mixed.

The dollar closed higher at 1.6704 Singapore dollars from 1.6688 the day before and 38.71 Thai baht from 38.67 baht. It inched down slightly to 31.724 Taiwan dollars from 31.728.