Most Asian currencies weaken

Most Asian currencies weakened against the US dollar on Thursday as market participants adjusted positions as persistent volatility in regional equities lowered risk appetites. Chang Wei Liang, an FX strategist with Mizuho Bank, said the broader picture "is that of risk reduction". "I think a lot of people who were previously long risk, and that usually involves being long Asian currencies... might be reassessing their positions," he said.
Against a basket of six major currencies, the dollar was steady at 90.242, just shy of a two-week high of 90.40 touched on Wednesday. The Thai baht was one of the region's biggest losers, weakening about 0.7 percent. "There was a speculative short dollar-baht positioning for the most of January, showing that people were expecting baht appreciation against the dollar," Chang said. "But now this environment is very different from what we have seen, given the equity market volatility."
South Korea's won was 0.2 percent weaker against the dollar, while the Taiwan dollar fell 0.3 percent after January export growth failed to match expectations. The Malaysian ringgit shed 0.4 percent. The country's exports rose at a much slower annual pace for a second straight month in December, data showed on Wednesday, hurt by lower commodity prices and shipment volumes. The Singapore dollar slipped 0.1 percent.
India's rupee was the only gainer in the region, firming less than 0.1 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed, staying near its six-week low touched on Tuesday. The Philippine peso weakened 0.5 percent while the Philippine Stock Exchange's equity index lost as much as 0.8 percent.
The Philippine central bank is edging closer to its first interest rate hike in over three years, but is unlikely to pull the trigger on Thursday despite a sharp pick-up in inflation, a Reuters poll showed. Monetary tightening "could provide a boost of confidence for PHP (peso) assets while also dampening longer-term inflation worries," said DBS Group in a note.
China's yuan weakened as much as 1 percent against the dollar, its worst intra-day drop since August 2015. Data showed a 36.9 percent jump in the China's dollar denominated imports for January, which led to a narrower trade surplus than expected.