BENGALURU: Most Asian currencies weakened against the U.S. dollar on Thursday as market participants adjusted positions as persistent volatility in regional equities lowered risk appetites.
Chang Wei Liang, an FX strategist with Mizuho Bank, said the broader picture ”is that of risk reduction”.
“I think a lot of people who were previously long risk, and that usually involves being long Asian currencies... might be reassessing their positions,” he said.
Against a basket of six major currencies, the dollar was steady at 90.242, just shy of a two-week high of 90.40 touched on Wednesday.
The Thai baht was one of the region’s biggest losers, weakening about 0.7%.
“There was a speculative short dollar-baht positioning for the most of January, showing that people were expecting baht appreciation against the dollar,” Chang said.
”But now this environment is very different from what we have seen, given the equity market volatility.”
South Korea’s won was 0.2% weaker against the dollar, while the Taiwan dollar fell 0.3% after January export growth failed to match expectations.
The Malaysian ringgit shed 0.4%. The country’s exports rose at a much slower annual pace for a second straight month in December, data showed on Wednesday, hurt by lower commodity prices and shipment volumes.
The Singapore dollar slipped 0.1%. India’s rupee was the only gainer in the region, firming less than 0.1%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed, staying near its six-week low touched on Tuesday.
The Philippine peso weakened 0.5% while the Philippine Stock Exchange’s equity index lost as much as 0.8%.
The Philippine central bank is edging closer to its first interest rate hike in over three years, but is unlikely to pull the trigger on Thursday despite a sharp pick-up in inflation, a Reuters poll showed.
Monetary tightening ”could provide a boost of confidence for PHP (peso) assets while also dampening longer-term inflation worries,” said DBS Group in a note.
China’s yuan weakened as much as 1% against the dollar, its worst intra-day drop since August 2015.
Data showed a 36.9% jump in the China’s dollar denominated imports for January, which led to a narrower trade surplus than expected. - Reuters
USD recovered some recently, but Heaveboard still achieving the lowest record again. I think some expecting poorer coming quarterly results, thus selling is still persistent.
AM INV fund manager for EPF sold and still holds a few millions shares for EPF. The EPF Investment Board bought.
Dividend last FY totaled 7.7sen per share. Even if dividend reduces by 50% this year, it will still yield more than 4% at current share price of 91 sen...
@saltedfish, like I said before, not everyone who bought in 2017 are making loss or trapped. Remember your good friend - Specter? I think he made good profit and may be he is skiing at Alps now. :)
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/The-Oil-Bubble-Has-Burst-What-N... Oil Price down means ringgit down. Don't need to argue . Ringgit is weakening from now onward. Oil market is always oversupply everyday. Just OPEC and Malaysia and some countries try to control the price and make it high but they eventually fail. We will see again US$30 per barrel sooner or later.
Short term target: I guess 4Q17 EPS is about 2.2 to 2.5c, about same as estimate by JF Apex. Hence, FY2017 EPS shld be about 10 to 11c. With 10 PER, the FV is at least RM1.00. This counter is already dumped heavily in recent times, is good time to accumulate more if you have confident to them.
Mid-term risk & opportunities: - Forex risk is get eased as now USD is strengthening, with the back of oil prices going down. - High material costs can pass-on to customer in 1 or 2 quarters' time, but could face pricing war from intense competitions. - manpower shortage issue.
Long-term prospects: - Gourmet fungi new business is on track - 2020 Japan Olympic Game - Capacity expansion for both RTA & Particleboard division to cope with future more demands.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
shortinvestor77
5,487 posts
Posted by shortinvestor77 > 2018-02-08 15:57 | Report Abuse
http://www.klsescreener.com/v2/news/view/340351
BENGALURU: Most Asian currencies weakened against the U.S. dollar on Thursday as market participants adjusted positions as persistent volatility in regional equities lowered risk appetites.
Chang Wei Liang, an FX strategist with Mizuho Bank, said the broader picture ”is that of risk reduction”.
“I think a lot of people who were previously long risk, and that usually involves being long Asian currencies... might be reassessing their positions,” he said.
Against a basket of six major currencies, the dollar was steady at 90.242, just shy of a two-week high of 90.40 touched on Wednesday.
The Thai baht was one of the region’s biggest losers, weakening about 0.7%.
“There was a speculative short dollar-baht positioning for the most of January, showing that people were expecting baht appreciation against the dollar,” Chang said.
”But now this environment is very different from what we have seen, given the equity market volatility.”
South Korea’s won was 0.2% weaker against the dollar, while the Taiwan dollar fell 0.3% after January export growth failed to match expectations.
The Malaysian ringgit shed 0.4%. The country’s exports rose at a much slower annual pace for a second straight month in December, data showed on Wednesday, hurt by lower commodity prices and shipment volumes.
The Singapore dollar slipped 0.1%. India’s rupee was the only gainer in the region, firming less than 0.1%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed, staying near its six-week low touched on Tuesday.
The Philippine peso weakened 0.5% while the Philippine Stock Exchange’s equity index lost as much as 0.8%.
The Philippine central bank is edging closer to its first interest rate hike in over three years, but is unlikely to pull the trigger on Thursday despite a sharp pick-up in inflation, a Reuters poll showed.
Monetary tightening ”could provide a boost of confidence for PHP (peso) assets while also dampening longer-term inflation worries,” said DBS Group in a note.
China’s yuan weakened as much as 1% against the dollar, its worst intra-day drop since August 2015.
Data showed a 36.9% jump in the China’s dollar denominated imports for January, which led to a narrower trade surplus than expected. - Reuters