EMERGING MARKETS-Asian currencies hit multi-year lows as yuan drags

By Harish Sridharan

Sept 16 (Reuters) – Several Asian currencies hit multi-year lows on Friday, as the yuan weakened past the psychologically important 7-per-dollar level, while bets of a big U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike next week boosted Treasury yields and kept dollar demand intact.

Thailand’s baht THB=TH slid to a level not seen since December 2006, while the Taiwanese dollar TWD=TP slipped to its lowest since September 2019. South Korea’s won KRW=KFTC hit a fresh 13-1/2-year low.

The yuan CHN=EBS, CNY=CFXS had fallen below 7 per dollar only twice since the global financial crisis of 2008, and its crossing of the level could now stoke fears of capital outflows.

But several state media outlets published commentaries that sought to stabilise market expectations by playing down any significance of the level.

“We are in a very strong dollar environment, which is very hard to go against, and so (the People’s Bank of China) won’t be looking to defend any particular level rigorously…. It’s really all about managing the pace of the moves,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ.

The won KRW=KFTC, the worst performing emerging-market currency in Asia so far this year, fell 0.2% and was on course for a sixth straight weekly decline against the dollar.

Verbal warnings and likely dollar selling from the country’s foreign exchange authority on Thursday appeared to have provided some temporary relief to the won. But analysts have warned that defending currency levels is very costly and, if unilateral, unlikely to be effective.

On Friday, a finance ministry official said the government would meet with major exporters and importers early next week to prepare measures to stabilise the dollar-won currency market.

Markets in Malaysia were closed for a holiday. India’s rupee INR=IN fell 0.2%, while the Indonesian rupiah IDR= hit a more than six-week low.

“So long as (the yuan) remains weak, you’re quite likely to see Asian underperformance in aggregate,” said Galvin Chia, emerging markets strategist at NatWest Markets.

He expects the weakness to be centred around currencies such as the South Korean won, Taiwan’s dollar and the Malaysian ringgit.

Stock markets in Asia were also weaker, with Indonesia .JKSE on track for its worst session since early July after rising to a record on Thursday.

Equities in Jakarta, Taipei .TWII, Seoul .KS11 and Mumbai .NSEI dropped between 0.7% and 1.7%.

Shares in Shanghai .SSEC fell more than 1.5% to a four-and-a-half-month low, even as data showed China’s economy had been surprisingly resilient in August. Faster-than-expected growth in factory output and retail sales shored up the recovery from the effects of COVID.

But China’s property sector contracted further, with home prices, investment and sales extending losses.

U.S. two-year Treasury yields US2YT=RR hit a fresh 15-year high overnight after data on retail sales and jobless claims showed a resilient economy that gives the Federal Reserve ample room to aggressively hike interest rates next week. US/

HIGHLIGHTS

** China’s economy perks up but property crisis worsens

** S.Korea’s Yoon, Biden expected to discuss currency swap -Yonhap

** Singapore’s August non-oil domestic exports up 11.4% year-on-year, compared to Reuters poll of 8.3% jump

Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0604 GMT

COUNTRY

FX RIC

FX DAILY %

FX YTD %

INDEX

STOCKS DAILY %

STOCKS YTD %

Japan

JPY=

-0.04

-19.85

.N225

-1.07

-4.22

China

CNY=CFXS

-0.28

-9.43

.SSEC

-1.40

-13.32

India

INR=IN

-0.17

-6.89

.NSEI

-1.04

1.94

Indonesia

IDR=

-0.23

-4.55

.JKSE

-1.68

9.14

Malaysia

MYR=

–

-8.14

.KLSE

–

-6.39

Philippines

PHP=

-0.03

-11.12

.PSI

-0.44

-8.09

S.Korea

KRW=KFTC

-0.20

-14.87

.KS11

-0.99

-20.13

Singapore

SGD=

-0.06

-4.29

.STI

-0.12

4.50

Taiwan

TWD=TP

-0.50

-11.50

.TWII

-0.74

-20.07

Thailand

THB=TH

-0.32

-9.90

.SETI

-0.39

-1.31

Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E

Asian stock marketshttps://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

(Reporting by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((Harish.Sridharan@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/damnit_saladin;))

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