Southeast Asian currencies slide
Southeast Asian currencies slide
SINGAPORE (Reuter): Southeast Asian currencies slipped again
yesterday and dealers said they could be ready for a new round of
falls with the market still worried and regional bourses dropping
sharply.
In Indonesia, improving liquidity depressed the rupiah,
propped up in recent sessions by the central bank's sharp rates
rise last week.
Dealers said swap rates fell across the board as interest
rates dropped, with overnight rupiah falling to 20 percent from
100 percent in the morning.
"There are rumors ranging from interest rate cuts to central
bank offerings of short-term securities (SBPUs). But none of them
are true," a European bank dealer said.
"What we have today is sufficient liquidity supply. I think
it's resulting from maturing central bank papers which are not
rolled over," the dealer said.
Spot rupiah was at 2,770/75 at 0945 GMT against an opening of
2,690/2,710.
A Japanese bank dealer in Jakarta said offshore players
started the round of swap selling, probably in anticipation of
interest rates easing.
The South Korean won made an about-turn and ended firmer on
stop-loss dollar sales sparked by the central bank's repeated
intervention.
The won ended at 900.50 to the dollar, up both from Monday's
904.60 and from a historic low of 909.50 on Tuesday morning.
The Bank of Korea's dollar sales, estimated by dealers at
about $500 million, initially pushed the won up to an intraday
high of 899.80.
Dealers attributed the won's morning fall to talk that this
month's trade deficit would be bigger than expected. They said
the won was likely to remain firmer for the time being due to
fears of more central bank intervention.
In Malaysia, the ringgit fell against the U.S. dollar on talk
that U.S. funds were accumulating long dollar/ringgit positions
in the forward market.
"We've been hearing that U.S. funds have been buying
dollar/ringgit heavily in the forward market, especially in the
six-months and one-year," the U.S. bank dealer said.
The ringgit was quoted at 2.7820/70 to the dollar after
briefly falling through 2.79 against 2.7700/50 late on Monday.
The ringgit fell to new lows against the Singapore dollar on
follow-through sales after the cross breached stop-loss limits
overnight. Ringgit/Sing was at 0.5359/76 at 0945 GMT.
"There were still some long positions on the cross so once we
broke 0.5450 and 0.5400, there was more selling. But
fundamentally, I don't see any reasons why we should be selling
it," the U.S. bank dealer said.
The Singapore dollar briefly fell through 1.5000 to the U.S.
dollar in line with the ringgit's drop.
It was quoted at 1.4935/55, little changed from its noon
levels, after firming to 1.4895 earlier on sales of an estimated
$50 million by a Tokyo party, dealers said.
The Thai baht was subdued as domestic demand for the dollar
subsided, but dealers said sentiment remained weak on lingering
concerns about Thailand's economic and political outlook.
The Philippine peso weakened as foreign funds pulled out of
the badly bruised stock market. The peso ended at 30.02 to the
dollar against Monday's 29.895 close while the key stock market
index finished at a new 21-month low of 2,300.82.
The Philippine central bank raised its rediscount rate for
September to 13.188 percent from 12.572 last month.
The Taiwan dollar ended unchanged as the central bank
maintained its defense of the T$28.727 level in the face of heavy
demand for the U.S. dollar.