SINGAPORE: The Indonesian rupiah led losses among emerging Asian currencies on Thursday as investors took profits from regional units as they saw a chance that US jobs data later in the day might be strong enough to lift the dollar further.
Some regional currencies turned slightly higher with the South Korean won hitting a six-year high on demand from custodian banks as foreign investors continued to buy Seoul shares.
Asian currencies will probably hold their ground until the end of this year and then weaken in early 2015 when a long-awaited dollar rally is expected to kick in, a Reuters survey of foreign exchange strategists showed.
The rupiah fell due to caution ahead of next week's presidential election.
Bearish bets in the Indonesian currency increased to the highest since late January in the past two weeks, even though investor sentiment on regional units largely improved, according to a separate poll.
The greenback gained against a basket of six major currencies, in part due to an upbeat private report on new US jobs.
US payrolls processor ADP said on Wednesday that private employers added 281,000 workers to payrolls last month, the largest number since November 2012.
That raised expectations of a healthy gain in the nonfarm payrolls number that is scheduled for release later on Thursday, a day earlier than usual due to a holiday on Friday.
Nonfarm payrolls probably increased 212,000 in June, marking the fifth consecutive month of job gains above 200,000, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
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