Asian monies mixed late as Mahathir stings S'pore dollar
Asian monies mixed late as Mahathir stings S'pore dollar
Dow Jones, Singapore
Asian currencies were mixed late Friday, finding solace from a stabilizing yen as Japan's monetary authorities appeared to have toned down their weaker yen rhetoric, dealers said.
Offsetting the support from the yen, a warning by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Friday that Malaysia would have to review its currency peg - if a further depreciation in the yen forces China to devalue the yuan - unnerved market participants, dealers said.
"If it (the yen) goes down, I am worried because it may cause China to devalue and of course that will force us to rethink our peg," Mahathir told reporters after meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Kuala Lumpur.
When asked by reporters as to what level the yen must weaken against the dollar before his worries would become acute, Mahathir said: "They say 140 yen to a dollar - I don't know, we'll have to study it."
In a knee-jerk reaction to the Malaysian leader's comments, the Singapore dollar briefly slipped to S$1.8455 against its U.S. counterpart, from around S$1.8415 before the Malaysian leader made his remarks, dealers said.
Late in the day, the Singapore dollar was quoted at S$1.8434, steady compared with S$1.8436 late Thursday.
As Koizumi embarked earlier this week on a series of state visits to Southeast Asian nations, Japan's monetary officials had expressed concerns over the speed of the yen's recent decline.
This succeeded in halting the yen's inexorable slide to a fresh 39-month low of around 133.40 yen against the dollar Wednesday.
At 0950 GMT (04:50 p.m Jakarta time) Friday, the dollar was quoted at 132.16 yen, below 132.57 yen late Thursday in New York.
Overwhelming the influence of a stronger yen, foreign equity outflows and a late bout of dollar demand by offshore participants weighed on the South Korean won, dealers said.
As a result, the won weakened against the yen, falling slightly to 9.96 won a yen late in the day, compared with around 9.90 won a yen Thursday.
Against the dollar, the won finished at 1,315.5 won, slightly stronger than Thursday's close of 1,312.3 won.
The U.S. dollar closed at NT$35.045, slightly higher compared with NT$35.025 Thursday, in dealings valued at US$534 million.
Taiwan's central bank accounted for around $200 million of the session's turnover - largely U.S. dollar purchases, as it fended off the appreciating pressures on the local currency from a firmer yen, dealers said.
The Thai currency was slightly stronger at 44.030 baht to the dollar, compared with 44.100 baht late Thursday.
The Indonesian rupiah was buoyed by a 2.4 percent jump in Jakarta's benchmark stock index, which had offset the downward pressure on the currency arising from corporate demand for dollars, dealers said.
The dollar was steady from late Thursday at around 10,430 rupiah.