Won, ringgit rise

The South Korean won and the Malaysian ringgit rose on Tuesday but speculators kept selling other regional currencies on rallies, suggesting quarter-end dollar demand and risk reduction related to Greece's austerity vote will keep their upside limited. "We see upside risk in USD/AXJ this week as risk will remain firmly off and USD shorts continued to unwind, albeit mostly against a faltering euro," said Andy Ji, Asian currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Singapore.
The Thai baht has been leading to the downside. It had gained as much as 1.4 percent against the dollar earlier this year, but has turned tide and is down 2.6 percent year-to-date. The won rose against the dollar as South Korean shipbuilders bought the local currency for the quarter-end settlements.
The local currency strengthened as much as 0.5 percent to 1,080.2 per dollar, but erased some gains to end domestic trade at 1,083.5, just below the 60-day moving average at 1,083.6. A close in the ringgit below the 200-day moving average, which stands at 3.0602 per dollar, will be a good signal to sell the ringgit. The rupiah edged down to 8,625/dollar because of half-yearly corporate dividend payouts and worries about outflows from the Greek debt crisis.
Dollar/rupiah has resistance around 8,637, the 23.6 percent retracement of its decline between January and June. The baht hit a near five-month low against the dollar on month-end corporate demand for dollars and baht selling from foreign banks. But the central bank was spotted selling dollars to limit the Thai currency's weakness around 30.96 per dollar and 30.98, dealers said. Technically, dollar/baht has room to rise, with the 2011 high at 31.29.