The Indian rupee and the Philippine peso led a weekly advance among Asian currencies on speculation oil prices near the lowest in seven weeks will reduce demand for dollars from importers.
The rupee posted its best week in four months as exporters may have converted overseas earnings to guard against further currency gains. A stronger rupee erodes revenue from overseas shipments in local-currency terms. Crude oil in New York declined for a third week, helping lower India’s import costs.
The rupee gained 1.2 percent this week to 42.265 per US dollar in Mumbai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It may strengthen to 42.10 next week, Rao said.
The Philippine peso rose 0.9 percent from last week to 44.07 in Manila, according to Tullett Prebon PLC.
The Indian currency rallied 1.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest gain in more than a decade, on speculation the government will allow more overseas investment in the financial industry after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh survived a confidence vote in parliament the previous day.
South Korea’s won advanced this week on speculation the government bought the currency to help contain inflation.
The won has gained 3.8 percent this month, the best performance among the 16 most-active major currencies as South Korean Vice Finance Minister Kim Dong-soo said on Thursday that the government would monitor for “herd behavior” in the foreign-exchange market.
The won climbed 0.5 percent this week to 1,009.20 in Seoul, from 1,013.80 last week, Seoul Money Brokerage Services Ltd said. It dropped 0.2 percent on Friday.
Malaysia’s ringgit snapped a two-week advance as the central bank unexpectedly refrained from increasing interest rates yesterday.
The ringgit dropped 0.3 percent this week to 3.25, Bloomberg data showed.
Elsewhere, The New Taiwan dollar dropped 0.2 percent to NT$30.407 against the US currency this week, the Singapore dollar fell 0.4 percent to S$1.3588 and the Thai baht declined 0.3 percent to 33.42 per US dollar. Vietnam’s dong was unchanged at 16,795 versus a week ago.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm named Trami at 2am yesterday, and is projected to move west-northwest toward waters east of Luzon Island, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Trami’s center was 700km east of Manila, or 1,180km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving in a northwesterly direction. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65kph, with gusts of up to 90kph, CWA data showed. The weather agency forecast the center of the storm would be over waters 470km east-northeast of Manila or 820km southeast of Oluanpi at 8am today, and urged ships
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday temporarily shut down the nation’s nuclear energy generation as the state-run utility started regular maintenance on the remaining reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant for 41 days. The No. 2 reactor of the nation’s only active nuclear plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) is set to be decommissioned next year. The No. 1 reactor has been offline since July. The shutdown is to perform equipment maintenance and fuel replacement in preparation for the power plant’s next operating cycle, Taipower said in a statement. With support from other energy sources, Taipower would ensure sufficient power supply
BIGGEST TROUBLEMAKER: China should not be carrying out any such exercises given the threat to regional peace and stability, Premier Cho Jung-tai said yesterday The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that live-fire Chinese drills in a province facing Taiwan are part of routine annual drills, but also possibly part of China’s “deterrence effect” in the waters of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, in a notice late on Monday, said an area around Niushan Island in China’s Fujian Province would be closed off for four hours from 9am yesterday for live-fire drills. Niushan sits just south of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands. The ministry in a statement said that the exercises are part of routine Chinese training and it was keeping a close watch, but
‘NO POSITION ON TAIWAN’: ‘I welcome the European Parliament’s focus on this issue and this important debate,’ European Commissioner Nicolas Schmit said on Tuesday The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not have any bearing on Taiwan’s participation in the UN or other international organizations, and rejected as unacceptable any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait. The motion passed by 432 votes in favor and 60 against with 71 abstentions during a plenary vote. The resolution condemned China’s continued military provocations against Taiwan, including drills around the nation on Monday last week. “Any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, particularly by means of force or coercion, will not be accepted and will