Asian currencies fell this week, led by South Korea's won and the Indonesian rupiah, as overseas investors sold the region's equities.
The won declined for an 11th day on Friday, matching the number of days fund managers abroad sold more of the nation's shares than they bought. The currency completed the worst week since November 2000 before an industry report that showed US consumer confidence dropped this month to the lowest in 16 years, adding to concern demand in Asia's major export market will cool.
"The trend of a weaker won and sell-off of the nation's assets may remain in place for a while," said Hideki Hayashi, chief economist at Shinko Securities Co in Tokyo. "Foreign investors are selling the equities and bonds of Korea."
The won weakened 1.5 percent on Friday to 997.30 against the US dollar at the close of onshore trading, taking the weekly loss to 4.2 percent, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said. Indonesia's rupiah dropped 1.6 percent for the week to 9,226, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The KOSPI index has slumped almost 16 percent this year amid concern rising raw-material costs and cooling global demand will curb South Korean corporate profits.
The won touched the lowest level in two years this week.
A widening current-account deficit and continuing outflows from stock sales are driving the won's decline, Ahn Byung-chan, director-general of the Bank of Korea's international bureau, said on Monday.
Seoul is "closely watching" the foreign-exchange market, he said.
Indonesia's rupiah had a second week of losses as crude oil traded near the US$111 per barrel record high and stock exchange data showed foreign investors were net sellers for a third straight week. The rupiah posted the biggest five-day decline since November.
"The rupiah will stay weaker as long as we have these risk-aversion fears and oil prices get just higher and higher everyday," said Catherine Tan, head of regional foreign exchange at Thomson Financial in Singapore. "Equities were sold off quite a bit so there's outflow fear."
The New Taiwan dollar ended the week at NT$30.744 from NT$30.75 on March 7, Taipei Forex Inc figures show.
In the Philippines, the peso dropped 1.7 percent this week to 41.54 as stock exchange data showed that fund managers abroad were net sellers of US$69.5 million in stocks during the period.
The Singapore dollar traded at a record high against the US currency on speculation the world's biggest economy entered a recession.
The Singapore dollar gained 0.3 percent from a week ago to trade at S$1.3827 and reached a peak of S$1.3781.
Vietnam's dong strengthened 0.3 percent for the week to 15,863 after the central bank expanded the trading band for the currency to 1 percent on either side of a daily fixed rate from Monday to slow the fastest inflation in more than 12 years.
Elsewhere, the Thai baht gained 0.5 percent this week to 31.41 against the dollar, while the Malaysian ringgit rose 0.1 percent to 3.165.
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