LM:Asian currencies halt slide as ringgit to peso lead weekly gains
Singapore: Asian currencies completed their best week in two months, led by the Philippine peso and Malaysia’s ringgit, as improvements in US economic data eased concern that global growth is slowing.
The Bloomberg JPMorgan-Asia Dollar Index halted a three- week slide to advance 0.3% after reports showed US jobless claims fell more than economists estimated and the nation’s services industry expanded. Emerging-market currencies had their worst start to a year since 2008 following a rout in Turkey’s lira and a devaluation in Argentina’s peso as the Federal Reserve pressed ahead with a plan to slow the pace of its monthly bond purchases by $10 billion.
The selloff is clearly overdone, and there’s a need to distinguish the good and bad ones within the EM bloc, said Roy Teo, a Singapore-based currency strategist at ABN Amro Bank NV. The recovery remains fragile given the headwinds from Fed tapering concerns.
The peso climbed 0.7
