Investors grow more bearish on rupee, Singapore dollar; nudge up yuan bets

Investors grew more bearish on most emerging Asian currencies in the last two weeks as Europe's debt crisis deepened, with views on the Indian rupee the most pessimistic in more than three years, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday. The survey of 11 currency analysts, conducted over two days, also found that investors were now the most bearish on the Singapore dollar since April 2009.
Currency players turned the most pessimistic on the South Korean won since mid-September and were the most bearish on the Taiwan dollar and the Malaysian ringgit since late September. But they raised bets on the Chinese yuan slightly. The Reuters survey focused on what analysts believe are the current market positions in eight Asian emerging market currencies: Chinese yuan, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, Indonesian rupiah, Taiwan dollar, Indian rupee, Philippine peso and Malaysian ringgit.
For the rupee, 10 of the 11 analysts were bearish while one was neutral. The Indian currency hit a record low against the dollar on Tuesday. It bounced on Wednesday after suspected central bank intervention, but analysts say the current wave of risk aversion sweeping global markets will likely keep the rupee under pressure for at least the near-term. Nine analysts were pessimistic about the Singapore dollar, while two were bullish.
The poll uses estimates of net long or short positions on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long on dollars. The figures included positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).