BLBG:Asian Currencies Trade Near Eight-Month High on Recovery Signs
Asian currencies traded near an eight-month high after data showed China’s manufacturing rebounded and South Korea’s exports rose for the first time in four months.
The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index, which tracks the region’s 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, was little changed at 117.92 today. It reached 117.98 yesterday, the highest since Feb. 29. China’s purchasing manager’s index climbed to 50.2 in October from 49.8 in September, according to official figures released today. Korea’s overseas shipments rose 1.2 percent from a year earlier after a revised 2 percent drop in September, a separate report showed.
“Signs of economic data bottoming out are helping to sustain interest in Asian currencies,” said Wee-Khoon Chong, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “Funds are still flowing into Asia and that will provide support.”
Taiwan’s dollar advanced 0.1 percent to NT$29.227 against the greenback as of 12 p.m. local time, according to prices from Taipei Forex Inc. India’s rupee appreciated 0.1 percent to 53.765 and South Korea’s won traded at 1090.43 versus 1,090.70 yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Indonesia’s rupiah fell the most in three weeks, declining 0.2 percent to 9,631, as a report showed the nation’s exports contracted for a sixth month.
Emerging-market bond funds attracted $44.2 billion this year through Oct. 24, compared with $15.9 billion in all of 2011, according to U.S. data research firm EPFR Global.
Yuan Fixing
China’s yuan was little changed at 6.2392 per dollar, halting a three-day advance as a lowering of the People’s Bank of China’s reference rate meant the currency had to weaken to remain within its permitted trading range. The PBOC’s fixing fell 0.02 percent to 6.3017 per dollar today, 1.02 percent below yesterday’s closing level for the currency. The yuan’s value is kept within 1 percent of the reference rate.
“China’s export growth this year doesn’t justify rapid yuan appreciation,” said Tommy Ong, a Hong Kong-based senior vice president of treasury and markets at DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. “Yet capital continues to flow into China on an improving growth outlook, which will continue to support the yuan.”
The currency touched 6.2371 per dollar on Oct. 29, the strongest level since the government unified the official and market exchange rates at the end of 1993.
The rupiah dropped the most since Oct. 10 today, after falling for a ninth straight month in October in the longest run of losses since Bloomberg began collecting the data in 1991.
Shipments from Indonesia slid 9.4 percent in September from a year earlier, after declining 24.3 percent the previous month, official data showed today. The nation’s current-account shortfall reached a record $6.9 billion in the second quarter.
Elsewhere, Thailand’s baht and Malaysia’s ringgit weakened 0.1 percent to 30.71 per dollar and 3.0512, respectively. Vietnam’s dong was little changed at 20,850.
To contact the reporters on this story: Elffie Chew in Kuala Lumpur at echew16@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net
