Asian currencies up late, RP peso trims early losses
Asian currencies up late, RP peso trims early losses
Dow Jones, Singapore
The Philippine peso clawed out of intraday troughs Monday but remained at a four-month low following a failed mutiny over the weekend. But regional counterparts barely reacted to the incident.
Analysts and traders viewed the mutiny by junior soldiers in the Philippines Sunday as an event that was specific to that country, with little danger of contagion.
"The coup in the Philippine is very much a domestic issue, opposed to, say, a terrorist act, which has wider implications for the region. Hence, we expect any spillover impact to be limited," BNP Paribas wrote in a late note Monday.
The dollar ended at 54.380 pesos on the Philippine Dealing System, up from 54.010 pesos Friday.
The dollar kicked off the session at 54.500 pesos and rose as high as 54.600 pesos before retreating. It failed to hit the 55 pesos level some had predicted earlier.
Generally, analysts expect Asian currencies to keep to a strengthening bias against the U.S. dollar over the course of the year as they remain bearish on the U.S. unit. But the peso's gains will likely be more modest as topside is capped by economic and security issues, they said.
This week, investors will be closely watching a slew of U.S. data for confirmation of whether the economy has indeed begun to improve.
Against the South Korean won, the dollar closed at 1,178.8, a tad below Friday's 1,180.1 won, due to selling by local exporters and foreign investors in local shares, traders said.
The selling wasn't aggressive and overall trading was slow.
"The market was in for another quiet session. The global currency market as a whole remains slow," said Koo Sang-Jun, a dealer at KorAm Bank.
Meantime, weaker-than-expected manufacturing output data for June pulled the Singapore dollar off earlier highs, dealers said.
Late in Asia, the U.S. unit was quoted at S$1.7480, down from S$1.7488 late Friday.
The Economic Development Board Monday said industrial production fell 7.3 percent on year in June, marking a third straight month of contraction. The drop was worse than the average 4.3 percent decline forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires poll.
Higher share prices and U.S. dollar selling by exporters helped lift the New Taiwan dollar, but gains were partly offset by suspected central bank intervention, dealers said.
The U.S. unit closed at NT$34.388, down from NT$34.405 Friday.
Trading was relatively quiet and the currency pair was confined to a narrow range during the session after the central bank called some bank traders last week to express concern over their short U.S. dollar positions, said a Taipei-based dealer.
The rupiah gave up early gains to close slightly lower on month-end dollar demand from importers, dealers said.
The dollar closed the local session at Rp 8,530, edging up from Rp 8,520 Friday.
The dollar earlier slid to a low of Rp 8,480 as investors sold back the currency after its recent rise to three-month highs.
But local importers, led by state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina, snapped up the dollar to finance their imports, dealers said.
Profit-taking on rupiah-denominated assets, which was responsible for the dollar's recent rally, appeared to have died out.
"It seemed to be only temporary and most foreign investors are still comfortable in parking their funds in Indonesia," said a dealer at a foreign bank. "There is no negative news on Indonesia as macroeconomic pictures continue improving although slowly."
The Thai baht also gave up early gains and moved to a slightly softer footing. Late in Asia, the U.S. dollar was quoted around 41.98 baht, slightly up from 41.95 baht Friday.