Asian currencies eke out gains on muted dollar

Reuters

Asian currencies eke out gains on muted dollar

4:46 sáng giờ GMT, 9 Tháng 10 2024

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Corrects third bullet to say Shanghai stocks reverse Tuesday gains, not Monday, paragraph 15 to say "10-day" from "seven-day"

Thailand baht gains most among Asian FX

RBI holds interest rates at 6.50%

Shanghai stocks reverse Tuesday's gains

By Sneha Kumar and Archishma Iyer

Oct 9 (Reuters) -Most emerging Asian currencies gained ground against a muted dollar on Wednesday as investors stood on the sidelines to assess the future rate cut path by the Federal Reserve, while a potential ceasefire in the Middle East aided risk sentiment.

Thailand's baht THB=TH appreciated as much as 0.8% to 33.310 per dollar, leading gains among currencies. It is the second-best performing currency in the region, after the Malaysian ringgit, with a 2.4% gain year-to-date.

The currency of Southeast Asia's second-largest economy has been buoyed of late by sustained Fed rate cut bets, stabilising politics and economic growth.

"For the baht, there could be some USD-selling interest from market players especially exporters as they have been waiting for the baht to weaken a bit," said Poon Panichpibool, a markets strategist at Krung Thai Bank.

At 0420 GMT, the dollar index remained steady at 102.59.

Other currencies such as the Indonesian rupiah IDR= and Taiwan dollar TWD=TP traded about 0.4% and 0.3% higher, respectively.

The Philippines peso PHP= was a notable outlier, falling about 0.3% to its lowest since mid August.

Investors are now awaiting a crucial inflation print for September from the world's largest economy as well as minutes from the Fed's recent meeting later on Wednesday to gain a better sense of where interest rates could be headed.

In Asia, the Reserve Bank of India kept its key interest rate steady at 6.50% as expected, while changing its policy stance to neutral, opening the door to cuts as the economy shows some signs of cooling.

The Bank of Korea is expected to move with a 25-basis point cut in its meeting later this week.

"Until the sentiment-driven market aligns with the Fed’s underlying outlook for lower inflation and interest rates, currencies are likely to lack direction from markets over-reacting to better- or worse-than-expected data," analysts from DBS wrote.

A potential ceasefire in the Middle East provided relief to sentiments which helped Asian stock markets to make some headway.

Among Asian equities, Taipei .TWII outshone others, rising as much as 1.2% to its highest level in nearly two weeks, tracking a rally in U.S. tech stocks.

Other shares in Singapore .STI, Bangkok .SETI, and Kuala Lumpur .KLSE traded between 0.1% and 0.4% higher.

Meanwhile, equities in Shanghai .SSEC snapped a 10-day winning streak to trade 5.3% lower, paring all gains from the previous session.

The index had risen as much as 10.1% on Tuesday on anticipation of more strong stimulus measures from Beijing which failed to materialise.

Markets in South Korea were closed due to a public holiday.

HIGHLIGHTS:

** Thailand approves $400 mln investment by Continental AG to expand tyre facility

** India, S. Korea bonds to join FTSE Russell government indexes in 2025

** Brussels rejected China proposal for 30,000 euro minimum sales price in EV dispute

Asian currencies and stocks at 0420 GMT
COUNTRY	FX RIC	FX DAILY %	FX YTD %	INDEX	STOCKS DAILY %	STOCKS YTD %
Japan	JPY=	-0.11	-4.92	.N225	0.74	17.26
China	CNY=CFXS	-0.02	+0.45	.SSEC	-5.30	11.09
India	INR=IN	+0.04	-0.86	.NSEI	0.19	15.32
Indonesia	IDR=	+0.39	-1.19	.JKSE	-0.04	3.87
Malaysia	MYR=	+0.07	+7.19	.KLSE	0.07	12.52
Philippines	PHP=	-0.27	-2.79	.PSI	-0.92	15.78
S.Korea	KRW=KFTC	-	-4.31	.KS11	-	-2.29
Singapore	SGD=	-0.01	+1.17	.STI	0.38	10.77
Taiwan	TWD=TP	+0.26	-4.36	.TWII	0.77	27.07
Thailand	THB=TH	+0.54	+2.32	.SETI	0.12	2.73