SINGAPORE: Emerging Asian currencies mostly inched higher on Monday, stabilising after taking a fall late last week, as investor jitters over problems at a Portuguese bank eased.
Many Asian currencies had declined late last week as investors booked profits due to fears about the potential fallout from financial troubles at the family-owned holding companies behind Portugal's largest-listed bank.
Market jitters, however, have gradually eased in the wake of a statement by Banco Espirito Santo, saying that loan losses that hit its founding family would not put the bank at risk of running short of capital.
The Indonesian rupiah underperformed regional peers, falling 0.6 percent to 11,645 per dollar.
The rupiah's retreat came in the wake of its 2.4 percent rally against the dollar last week, when the rupiah and Indonesian shares rallied on the prospect of a presidential election victory for Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, widely seen as more business-friendly than his rival, ex-general Prabowo Subianto.
Both candidates have claimed victory in the election that was held on July 9, and the Elections Commission is to announce the official result around July 22.
The Singapore dollar eased earlier after data showed that the city-state's economy contracted in April-June for the first time in seven quarters, hit by a sharp drop in manufacturing activity.
The Singapore dollar dipped to as low as 1.2421 versus the U.S. dollar earlier on Monday but later turned positive, and was last up about 0.1 percent at 1.2400 against the greenback.
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