India’s rupee led gains in Asian currencies, completing its best week in 12 years, on signs overseas funds are returning to buy local assets aided by cuts in borrowing costs by global central banks.
Seven of the 10 most-active currencies in Asia excluding the yen strengthened this week as the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 1.2 percent, extending last week’s 6 percent advance.
The rupee climbed 3.8 percent to 47.66 per US dollar in Mumbai, from 49.4575 on Oct. 31, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That is the biggest weekly gain since March 1996. Thailand’s baht and the Philippine peso strengthened 0.3 percent to 34.96 and 48.81 respectively in the week.
The New Taiwan dollar gained for a second week, the longest winning streak in more than three months.
“It’s difficult to see further weakening in the Taiwan dollar,” said Daniel Soh, an economist at Forecast Pte in Singapore. “The cross-strait policy measures will provide some support to the currency, as this is positive to the economies on both sides.”
The NT dollar rose 0.5 percent to NT$32.824 against the dollar, from NT$33 on Oct. 31, according to Taipei Forex Inc.
The yen headed for weekly gains against the euro and the British pound on speculation global interest-rate cuts will make it less attractive to purchase overseas assets using funds from Japan.
The yen rose to ¥124.46 versus the euro in London from ¥125.30 at the end of last week. It climbed to ¥153.87 versus the pound, from ¥158.28 last week.
Indonesia’s rupiah reversed Friday’s losses to end the week stronger. The rupiah rose 0.7 percent to 10,900 a dollar, from 10,975 a week earlier, Bloomberg data show.
South Korea’s won declined 2.8 percent this week to 1,328.80 per dollar, taking this year’s loss to 30 percent, the worst performance among the 10 most-traded Asian currencies outside Japan.
Elsewhere, the Vietnamese dong dropped 0.9 percent this week to 16,984 against the US dollar after the central bank widened the daily trading band for the currency to 3 percent from 2 percent. The Malaysian ringgit weakened 0.2 percent to 3.5520.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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